The move comes as Beijing strives to balance the profits of coal miners and power generators after widespread electricity outages and runaway coal prices last year.
Known as Incidental Practice Registration, this new application of temporary registration gives professional geoscientists the ability to register with PGO.
Biden's comments on Tuesday were the clearest to date about the rubric administration officials deploy when determining whether or not to support a proposed US mining project.
In its latest assessment of 250 mine sites, the Responsible Mining Foundation found that that commitments are commonplace, yet basic actions are rarely evident.