<\body> Stories in America: World's First Oil-Free Economy

Friday, February 10, 2006

World's First Oil-Free Economy

A refresher on the topic of oil use here in the United States:
The president's State of the Union reference to Mideast oil made headlines nationwide Wednesday because of his assertion that "America is addicted to oil" and his call to "break this addiction."

Bush vowed to fund research into better batteries for hybrid vehicles and more production of the alternative fuel ethanol, setting a lofty goal of replacing "more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025."

He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

Not exactly, though, it turns out.

"This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.
Darn.

Well at least Sweden is taking the issue seriously:
Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations.

The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.

"Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020," said Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development. "There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline."

The decision to abandon oil puts Sweden at the top of the world green league table. Iceland hopes by 2050 to power all its cars and boats with hydrogen made from electricity drawn from renewable resources, and Brazil intends to power 80% of its transport fleet with ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane within five years.
If you're looking for a good film to watch over the weekend, check out End of Suburbia.

2 Comments:

At 2/11/2006 6:49 AM, Blogger A. Rivera said...

The sad thing is we could be doing all sorts of things in the United States to eventually stop oil dependency, and the powers that be simply choose not to out of hubris and arrogance. Of course, the powers that be here just look at places like Europe and Brazil as socialist nuts, so whatever they do can't be right, even if it actually works. I wonder how long before the rest of the world moves past the U.S. in this area, and they keep on driving while SUVs here just sit idle and people are stuck walking, or just stuck. Best, and keep on blogging.

 
At 2/11/2006 8:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I second the recommendation.

 

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