Phillip Andrews-Speed has written a timely book. China's rapid economic growth has generated an enormous appetite for energy. Over the past decade, China has become an increasingly important factor in global energy markets. China was responsible for about one third of the increase in daily world oil consumption in 2003, and China's demand for oil and coal has contributed to the recent higher prices for both of these commodities. Consequently, the decisions Beijing makes – and does not make – about energy will have an increasing impact not only on China but also on the rest of the world.

Energy Policy and Regulation in the People's Republic of China surveys energy policy formulation, implementation and regulation in China. The book is primarily based on research previously published by the author, and reads more like a collection of parts than an organic whole. Nonetheless, two themes loosely bind the chapters together. First, China lacks a coherent energy policy. Secondly, China's powerful state-owned energy companies exert considerable influence over energy decision-making.

Andrews-Speed argues that China's energy policy incoherence can be explained, in part, by the fragmented institutional structure of energy decision-making. China does not have a Ministry of Energy to oversee the formulation and implementation of policy. Currently, this responsibility nominally falls to the Energy Bureau within the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC). Yet, the Energy Bureau lacks both the manpower and the authority to play a major role in policy making. Both the Chinese and Western media indicate that the Energy Bureau's small staff of 30 is so overwhelmed with projects in need of approval that it has little time to devise and co-ordinate broader policy objectives. The Energy Bureau's ability to shape policy is also limited by the fact that it is only one of many actors involved in energy matters. Energy decisions, according to Andrews-Speed, are the result of bargaining and consensus-building among the stakeholders in any given initiative and do not reflect an overarching strategy for energy.