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HONG KONG

A proposed power station on Lamma Island has met with opposition from environmentalists. Hong Kong Electric is planning to build two 600- mw generating units next to its existing 2,955- mw -plant on Lamma, with the first unit to be commissioned by the year 2003. Criticising the proposal, Mei Ng Fong Siu-mei, director of the environmental group, Friends of Earth, said, "I think Hong Kong's people would be getting a very bad deal. The environment would be getting a very bad deal.'

She accused the utility companies of over-estimating the territory's future energy demand, saying that they had never justified their estimates. It is not yet known whether the government has given a green signal to the proposal to build the two generating units. Lam Pun-lee, assistant professor in the department of business studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University suggested that the company should import more environment-friendly energy sources like natural gas, from southern China.

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