"Regional approval restrictions" means that if a company or a region has serious environmental violations, the environmental protection department has the right to suspend the approval of all new projects in this company or this region until the company or the region has completed the rectification. On January 10, 2007, the former State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) for the first time used the administrative punishment of "regional approval restriction" to stop approving all construction projects in four administrative regions, namely Tangshan City of Hebei Province, Lvliang City of Shanxi Province, Liupanshui City of Guizhou Province and Laiwu City of Shandong Province, and the four major electric power groups, namely Datang International, Huaneng, Huadian and Guodian, except for the recycling economy projects. The "industry restriction" means that all industries exceeding the total environmental capacity control target will stop approving all projects belonging to them, except for circular economy projects, until their non-compliant projects are completely rectified. Datang International Tangshan Power Plant's five small units have been shut down a few days ago. Tangshan is a typical traditional industrial city that relies on resources for development.
Prior to the batch limit, Tangshan has more than 70 small steel mills, not only the layout of decentralized, low level of governance, and its tons of steel sulfur dioxide and soot emissions in more than 10 kilograms, the regional policy of batch limit in the city of Tangshan to produce the effect is very obvious. Tangshan City to limit the approval as an opportunity to start from the actual steel city, put forward and implement the construction of scientific development demonstration area as the leading role in promoting the transformation of resource cities to promote industrial upgrading of the overall development strategy. Shougang, Tangshan Steel as a leader, and gradually get rid of the total amount of steel processing, the scale of dependence, through the "on the big squeeze the small, help the excellent and eliminate the bad", optimize the industrial structure. Environmental Protection Administration of the Tangshan City, the rectification has been fully affirmed. The use of regional and industry restriction policy, is the hope that more effective supervision of local governments and industry groups to adjust the industrial structure, change the mode of growth, to complete the energy saving targets. The successful experience of the Tangshan municipal government is worthy of emulation by all resource industrial cities.