Looking East
March 26th, 2007 by Carbon CoalitionLast Thursday, the Boston Globe ran one in a series of articles about energy use in Japan. Japan serves as a rebuttal to critics who say that the steps necessary to seriously address our national energy use will harm the US economy. Japan has the second-largest economy in the word, has a per-capita income relatively equal to that of the US, yet consumes about 1/2 the amount of energy per-capita that we do. Now there are reasons why Japan is compelled to address energy use beyond being a good world citizen. For instance, it imports nearly all its oil. But the fact remains that through innovation and an emerging culture that embraces conservation and efficiency, the Japanese enjoy a high standard of living while consuming much less energy.
Clearly, differences between US and Japanese cultures necessitate a difference in the details of energy policy. The lesson, though, is that this can be done without significantly harming our economy or damaging our standard of living as long as we embrace reduced energy use as a worthy societal goal. To this end, the NH State Legislature is considering a number of bills aimed at increasing use of renewables and/or reducing carbon output. Foster’s has the story.
Meanwhile, Sen. McCain seems to be reaping the benefits from the Straight Talk Express’ tour of the state. Sen. McCain seems to be giving a ”climate change is real, now bear with me…” nod to global warming. This assumes that the assembled crowd is populated with skeptics. According to this poll, this assumption is not necessarily true. Remember, Sen. Jim Inhofe is not the official voice of Republicans on climate change.
