In a recent article on China's energy I noted the growing call on oil imports as a result of China's car and truck boom. The car industry will keep expanding as more consumers find the cash to buy and the truck industry will grow as the need for mass transport of consumer goods also expands.

China is heading down the same path as the US, where the rising dependency on foreign oil has deeply worried policymakers and legislators alike. With exploding oil prices in recent years, this rapidly imposes trade deficits on the importing country, even if the dollar itself is weakening?

Some Chinese colleagues are now pointing to China's growing dependence on foreign oil which has now surpassed that of the US. More than half of China's oil is imported.

The two largest economies share profiles of huge energy use, oil dependency and considerable use of coal for power generation. They also have a burgeoning renewable energy sector and clean technologies are developing rapidly.

Apart from that, they are joined at the hip by China's investment in US government debt. At the moment the US is "running on empty," with rock bottom interest rates and a huge debt. In addition the real economy may be slipping into a second recession?

It is not in China's interest for this to happen. And cooperation on clean energy may be one way both countries can reduce their energy needs and help kickstart the US economy. Here are some ways forward.

In the coal industry, China needs to be much cleaner and more productive. Its best mines already are, but from the coal face to the power plant there are many clean technologies that can be applied in both countries. More cooperation is required similar to the excellent cooperation on mine safety that has been going on since 2002?

In the oil industry, Texas of the US has been leading on both enhanced methods for extracting oil and gas (such as fracturing) but is also dealing with the water contamination issue as well as other air quality standards. China also needs to get the most out of its own reserves.

On climate change, President Barack Obama has taken some actions to deal with the carbon footprint of his country, but China has introduced change that no developed country has. For example, it has built over 230 of the world's cleanest coal fired power plant, using supercritical boiler technology. Few of these have yet been built in either the US or Europe. But deeper cooperation on zero emissions plants is also needed.

Both the US and China have rapidly growing renewable energy industries, with US firms like GE and Honeywell competing with German firms like Siemens ?to further develop clean tech in their Chinese subsidiaries as well?

In energy conservation both countries have had to ask consumers to roll back their demand for electricity during heat waves to reduce pressure on state grids, as in Texas and China's southwest region this month, but demand management, better building design, boosting natural ventilation and the use of low cost, low energy cooling fans, such as those made in China, make better sense.

There are specific issues to deal with in the two way trade flow in clean energy technologies such as intellectual property rights and dual military/civilian use restrictions on the US side but really, there is not much to argue about in the face of such potential joint benefits.

The author is a coal mine safety and energy adviser. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn?