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Scientific and rational approaches are needed for the \"dual control\" of energy consumption in the coal chemical industry. Author/Source: Sinochem New Network. Date: June 16, 2021. Clicks: 5. Since the beginning of this year, some regions in China have adopted overly strict measures for the \"dual control\" of energy consumption, putting significant pressure on coal chemical enterprises and leaving them at a loss as to what to do. The author believes that in some places, there is no distinction made between the fuel coal and raw material coal used by coal chemical enterprises; the total energy consumption of these enterprises is simply determined based on data from the previous year, resulting in a one-size-fits-all approach to reducing the total amount of coal used. This approach is neither scientific nor reasonable. It is necessary to strike a balance between the dual controls on energy consumption and economic development under the \"dual carbon\" goals. At present, the approach of simply using the actual energy consumption from the previous year to determine coal consumption targets is not entirely reasonable. As far as the author knows, in some areas of our country, the coal quotas allocated to coal chemical enterprises in 2021 were all reduced by a certain percentage based on the actual amount of coal used by those enterprises in the previous year. As is well known, due to the pandemic in 2020, corporate production was severely disrupted; the actual output of products was less than 70% of that in normal years, with some companies seeing figures as low as 50%. Therefore, the coal consumption of coal chemical enterprises in 2020 was generally much lower than in normal years. Moreover, it is unscientific for local authorities to use this as a basis to set the total energy consumption targets for enterprises for this year; this forces enterprises to adjust their operations to meet those targets, and it does not take into account their actual production needs. For example, a coal-to-oil company hardly produced anything during the first quarter of last year due to the pandemic, resulting in a low base level of energy consumption; yet the local authorities require this company to reduce its total energy consumption by another 50,000 tons of standard coal on a year-on-year basis during the first quarter of this year. Another large coal-based olefins manufacturer uses 320,000 tons of coal per month, while the coal quota assigned to it by the local authorities is only 250,000 tons; as a result, the company does not have enough coal to carry out its normal production activities. The situations faced by these two companies are not isolated cases, and such practices do not occur only in a few places. “During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, some provinces and regions failed to meet their targets for **energy consumption control**, and some were subject to discussions and official warnings due to their poor rankings. Since the second half of 2020, many provinces and regions have introduced a series of local policies to fully implement the dual controls on energy consumption during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and in 2021. In some provinces and regions, the targets for dual control of energy consumption are broken down step by step, from the provincial level down to the city and county levels, and then to individual enterprises. As a result of this cascading effect, local authorities **adopt such a one-size-fits-all approach in order to meet their obligations to higher authorities**, which harms both enterprises and the local economy. The operation of any enterprise follows its own economic laws. If a company’s production volume is too low during the manufacturing process, the cost of its products will inevitably be high, resulting in losses. If a company suffers losses for an extended period, it will surely close down. When more companies close down, the local economy will inevitably be affected as well. Therefore, setting reasonable coal consumption targets for coal chemical enterprises is not only crucial to their survival but also relates to the healthy development of the local economy. The correct approach to the \"dual control\" of energy consumption is to reasonably deduct the raw coal from the total energy consumption. Coal chemical engineering is the process of converting raw coal into new forms of energy and carbon-containing chemicals such as methanol, petroleum products, natural gas, and polypropylene. Only a very small amount of energy is emitted during this production process, while the energy consumption and emissions associated with coal chemical engineering mainly arise from the fuel coal itself. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between these two types of coal with different functions and adopt different accounting standards. However, due to the lack and inadequacy of relevant standards, local authorities often confuse fuel coal with raw coal in practice, including all raw coal in the energy consumption calculations. Taking coal-to-olefins as an example, there are currently no national standards for calculating the energy consumption across the entire process of producing polypropylene using coal-based olefins. In some areas, only the **Statistical Reporting System** is used, with fuel coal and raw coal both counted as physical amounts of energy; carbon-containing chemicals such as ethylene, propylene, methanol, and polypropylene are not considered as physical amounts of energy to be deducted from this total, resulting in inaccuracies in the calculation of overall energy consumption. In fact, there are two further **standards** regarding the comprehensive accounting in coal chemical industries: the \"Limits on Energy Consumption per Unit of Coal-to-Olefins Products\" (GB30180-2013) and the \"Limits on Energy Consumption per Unit of Polypropylene Products\" (GB31826-2015). These standards respectively account for the total energy consumption from raw coal to the olefins production stage, and the total energy consumption in the process of converting olefins into polypropylene. Regrettably, at present, local authorities **have not calculated the energy consumption metrics for coal-based polypropylene manufacturers in accordance with these two scientific and reasonable standards, resulting in a significant reduction in the energy consumption figures for such companies. Not only are coal-based olefin companies facing this issue; coal chemical enterprises using other production processes also encounter the same difficulties.