The State Council plans a new policy on curbing energy consumption to solve the imbalance between energy consumption and economic growth, China Youth Daily reported.   Spokesperson of the State Development and Reform Commission, Li Pomin, said that the forum staged by the State Council today would propose concrete policy that aims at curbing energy consumption by 20 percent.   Experts said that the government’s concern over energy consumption does not only spring from the need for short-term control but also how growing energy consumption intensifies the contradictions bought by the overheating economy.   According to the statistics of the State Development and Reform Commission, major energy productions continue to rise in the first half. National electricity production has increased 12 percent, coal production has increased 12.8 percent and import of crude oil has increased 16 percent.   To solve the problem that energy consumption has grown faster than the economy, the government plans to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent by 2010 and 4 percent by the end of this year. However, experts pointed out that not only it is difficult to reach the 4 percent reduction by the end of this year, the government faces another pressing problem--to increase energy usage efficiency.   Zhu Hongren, associate minister at economic movement bureau of State Development and Reform Commission, said that while stable energy production relieve the tension of supply and demand in the first half, newly developed provincial incentives start to encourage blind investment that accelerates energy waste both on production and consumption levels. The slow progress of environmental measures also contribute to worrisome resources and environmental problems.   When it comes to why energy conservation is difficult, Zhu explained that energy consumption has always accompanied economic growth throughout China’s development. In addition, different areas are currently at different stages of economic development so the adjustments to economic structure would take longer time.   Technological level in energy sector is comparatively backward which contributes to low energy usage efficiency. This acts as another obstacle to te plan of conservation.   The State Development and Reform Commission stated that the government would draft different objectives on national, provincial and local levels and make sure they would be thoroughly carried out. Management and supervision over industries that highly consume energy would be further tightened.   Details and concrete terms would be announced today at the forum.