On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Doug Pensinger wrote:
> So while agree with you that _some_ of the criticism is anti-Americanism, I do
> believe that it is incumbent upon us to take the bull by the horns when it
> comes to global warming. Personally, I don't believe that it would hurt the
> economy to cut back on consumption. In the face of a crisis the people of
> California cut back 11% on electricity consumption in a very short period of
> time. We could easily cut automobile emissions by requiring a larger
> percentage of the automobiles sold to be high mileage vehicles and by
> penalizing ostentatious consumption (read luxury SUVs). And we should reward
> a move towards renewables. In California, 11% of our energy comes from
> renewable sources and we have a goal to raise it to 20% by 2010. If the rest
> of the country follows suit, it's only a matter of time before we cut our
> greenhouse emissions to acceptable levels.
>
> Doug
While I actually agree that the US should do a lot more to control
greenhouse emissions - by far the most important thing we could do is
switch over to nuclear power, if possible going as far as the french have
- there are two points I would make to that. The first is that, as has
recently been demonstrated, California energy policy is not exactly
something I _want_ the rest of the United States to follow. The second is
that goals are all well and good, but I frankly think the chances that CA
can actually get to 20% - or even much beyond 11%, to be honest - are
somewhere between slim and none. The renewable energy technologies just
don't exist, and I'm not sure that they ever will.
Gautam
