From: ECONOMIC REPORTING REVIEW By Dean Baker September 12, 2005
Energy Efficiency In Asia, Low Fuel Prices And Subsidies Lose Ground Keith Bradsher New York Times, September 7, 2005, Page C5 http://err.c.topica.com/maadYiMabkeXubnpHI6baeQBpp/ This article reports on how several Asian countries are responding to rising world oil prices in setting the domestic price of gasoline. At one point the article asserts that China and India have "startling inefficiency" in their use of energy, claiming that they consume five times as much energy as Japan to produce a dollar of GDP. Actually, the problem is with the measurement of GDP. The article is referring to a currency conversion measure of GDP, in which the GDP of China and India is calculated in each country's currency, and then converted into dollars at the official exchange rate. Most economists would use a purchasing power parity measure of GDP, which attempts to apply the same set of prices to goods and services produced everywhere in the world. By this measure, China and India's GDP would be 4-5 times as large as with the currency conversion measure. Using the correct measure of GDP neither country stands out as being especially inefficient users of energy. In fact, both are more efficient than the United States. Dean Baker is the Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. http://www.cepr.net/pages/ _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
