Officials in a northern Chinese district banned residents from burning coal or wood for heating—even if it was well below the freezing point—ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The northern district of Shanhaiguan in Qinhuangdao city, Hebei Province, took extreme measures to fight smog, including forcibly closing or dismantling household stoves, reported state media outlets on Dec. 20. Local officials had imposed a district-wide ban on coal burning, transportation, storage, and sales, since July 20, read an online notice, with an official seal of the district government on it. There were reports of residents who could not afford natural gas or electric heating and struggled to warm themselves by wearing additional clothes indoors. The move is part of China’s clean energy drive to battle pollution and secure a “green” Games in Beijing and the province, showing that the two regions have deemed running a smog-free Olympics as a political …