Environmental assessment agencies fined

The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has fined five environmental assessment agencies for poor performance and mismanagement, Beijiing Times reported (in Chinese). The five penalized agencies are Shanghai University, the Environmental Protection Center of the Ministry of Communications, Shanghai Environmental Protection Development Center, Shanghai Environmental Protection Technical Consultancy Center and Shanghai Environment and Energy Saving Engineering Ltd. Li Qiong, one of the Ministry of Communications' chief environmental assessment engineers, has had his license suspended for three months for two environmental impact assessment reports that SEPA said contained "many technical problems" and were "unclear." This is the first time the regulator has punished assessment agencies.