The Action Plan clearly proposes

Accelerating the construction of dedicated railway lines for enterprises in the sand and gravel industry;   

Local governments should study policy measures for adjusting the transportation structure of the sand and gravel aggregate industry and promote clean transportation in the sand and gravel industry.  

This is of great significance, as it is the first time that the adjustment of the transportation structure of the sand and gravel industry has been explicitly included in the autumn and winter air pollution control plan for "2+26" cities!

At the same time, the Action Plan requires the full implementation of differentiated emission reduction based on performance evaluation. In principle, enterprises rated A and leading enterprises can independently adopt emission reduction measures during emergency responses to heavy pollution weather. This is of great significance for excellent sand and gravel enterprises!

The main contents of the Action Plan related to the sand and gravel industry are as follows:

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas include Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan, Xingtai, Baoding, Cangzhou, Langfang, and Hengshui in Hebei Province, as well as Xiong'an New Area; Taiyuan, Yangquan, Changzhi, and Jincheng in Shanxi Province; Jinan, Zibo, Jining, Dezhou, Liaocheng, Binzhou, and Heze in Shandong Province; and Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Anyang, Hebi, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, and Puyang in Henan Province (including Dingzhou and Xinji in Hebei Province, and Jiyuan in Henan Province). The Fenwei Plain includes Jinzhong, Yuncheng, Linfen, and Lüliang in Shanxi Province; Luoyang and Sanmenxia in Henan Province; Xi'an (including Xixian New Area), Tongchuan, Baoji, Xianyang, and Weinan (including Hancheng) in Shaanxi Province; and Yangling Demonstration Zone.

02 Promoting Key Projects of "Road to Rail" Conversion

Implementing the requirements of the Notice on Implementing the Three-Year Action Plan (2018-2020) for Promoting the Adjustment of Transportation Structure issued by the Ministry of Transport and other nine departments, and the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Dedicated Railway Lines issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments, accelerating sand and gravel the construction of dedicated railway lines for enterprises with large transportation volumes in industries such as thermal power, steel, coking, aluminum smelting, ferrous metal mining and selection, and non-metallic mineral mining and selection. Local governments should study policy measures for adjusting the transportation structure of the sand and gravel aggregate industry and promote clean transportation in the sand and gravel industry. Increase railway freight volume. Large industrial and mining enterprises and newly built logistics parks with dedicated railway lines should, in principle, achieve a railway transportation proportion of over 80% for bulk goods such as coal, coke, and iron ore.

03 Accelerating the Governance of Diesel Trucks

Accelerate the elimination of old diesel trucks. Provinces (cities) should earnestly implement the Notice on Accelerating the Elimination of Operating Diesel Trucks Meeting National III and Below Emission Standards in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Surrounding Areas and the Fenwei Plain, jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport and four other departments. According to local diesel truck elimination plans, comprehensive measures such as economic compensation, restrictions on use, and strict supervision of exceeding emission standards should be adopted to steadily promote the elimination of 1 million operating diesel trucks meeting National III and below emission standards. Cities should fulfill the task requirements for promoting the use of new energy and clean energy vehicles in public transportation, sanitation, postal services, taxis, commuting, and light logistics distribution. Carry out law enforcement inspections of diesel trucks. In accordance with the requirements of the Notice on Establishing and Implementing the Vehicle Emission Inspection and Maintenance System, jointly issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and two other departments, efforts should be made to ensure the implementation and effectiveness of the vehicle emission inspection and maintenance system, achieving closed-loop management of emission exceeding vehicle exhaust inspection and repair. Local governments shall not illegally set up height and width restrictions under the pretext of environmental protection, nor shall they set up detours near air quality monitoring points to artificially interfere with monitoring results. Carry out law enforcement inspections of non-road mobile machinery, and include construction units with prominent emission exceeding in the list of untrustworthy enterprises according to law. Actively promote the coding and registration of non-road mobile machinery, strictly implement convenient and people-friendly requirements, and strictly prohibit any charges during the coding and registration process. Continue to crack down on and eliminate illegal gas stations and mobile refueling vehicles, trace the source of substandard oil products, and investigate and punish the storage, sales, distribution centers, and production and processing enterprises of substandard oil products.

04 Fully Implementing Differentiated Emission Reduction Based on Performance Evaluation

Local governments should strictly follow the requirements of the Technical Guide for Developing Emergency Emission Reduction Measures for Key Industries during Heavy Pollution Weather (hereinafter referred to as the "Technical Guide") to comprehensively promote differentiated control based on performance evaluation, encouraging "advanced" enterprises with high environmental performance and urging "backward" enterprises with low environmental performance, using the "advanced" to drive the "backward" and improve the overall level of environmental protection work. Local governments should attach great importance to ensuring that the requirements of performance evaluation are communicated to each relevant enterprise and organize the evaluation work. For 39 key industries, performance evaluation should be strictly implemented according to the indicators in the Technical Guide. In principle, enterprises rated A and leading enterprises can independently adopt emission reduction measures during emergency responses to heavy pollution weather; enterprises rated B and below and non-leading enterprises should strictly implement the emission reduction measures corresponding to different warning levels and performance levels in the Technical Guide. For industries for which the state has not clearly implemented performance evaluation, the provincial (municipal) ecological environment departments can formulate unified performance evaluation standards based on the specific conditions such as the local improvement needs of ambient air quality, industrial pollution characteristics, and the level of industrial pollution control, and implement differentiated emission reduction measures during emergency responses to heavy pollution weather.

05 High-Standard Completion of Emergency Emission Reduction List

Local governments should complete the performance evaluation of relevant enterprises in their administrative regions on time, further improve the emergency emission reduction list to achieve full coverage of enterprises involved in air pollution. According to requirements, a list of industrial enterprises involved in ensuring people's livelihood, ensuring the normal operation of cities, or involving national strategic industries should be compiled and included in the emergency emission reduction list for heavy pollution weather. For small and micro enterprises involved in air pollution with low pollutant emissions, emergency control measures should be reduced as appropriate, and measures to stop or limit production should not be taken for residential heating boilers and the life service industry that has little impact on local air quality. Emergency emission reduction measures should be detailed and implemented to specific production lines, production processes, and production facilities to ensure that they are operable, monitorable, and verifiable. Provincial (municipal) ecological environment departments should strictly control the emergency emission reduction list, organize personnel to audit the list, and submit the audited lists of all cities in their administrative regions to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.