During an audio interview published on TransWorldNews, Pacific Asia China Energy (TSX-V: PCE) executive vice president Steve Khan told StockInterview.com about China’s growing energy crisis, which is draining the world’s available supplies of oil, natural gas and other commodities. Khan explained China’s growing middle class, now numbering more than 300 million, is partly responsible for the red-hot GDP growth in the first half of 2006. Because China draws about 70 percent of its energy for powering its economy from coal, the Chinese are turning more heavily to unconventional gas, known as coalbed methane, according to Khan.

More than 30,000 coal mines releasing methane gas are responsible for about 40 percent of China’s air pollution. Methane gas explosions cause the deaths of more than 6,000 Chinese coal miners every year. "China wants to reduce its air pollution and save the lives of coal miners," said Khan. By capturing and using the gas byproduct, before coal mines start producing, China saves lives and reduces air pollution while using the gas as a clean, reliable energy source.

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