US Could Soon Be Greener Than Europe
, with its 37 million people, emits 20 percent less CO2 per dollar of GDP than Germany. It generates 24 percent of its electrical power from renewable fuels like wind and solar, compared with only 15 percent in Germany and 11 percent in Japan. It also has the world’s largest solar-power plant (550 megawatts in the Mojave Desert), the largest wind farm (7,000 turbines at Altamont Pass) and the most powerful geothermal installation (750 megawatts at The Geysers north of San Francisco). Although California isn’t immune to the economic crisis—its finances are on the brink of collapse, which could translate into growing support for those who argue that green measures cost jobs—its green accomplishments put it at the head of the pack. If California were a country, its economy would rank as the world’s 10th largest and could lay claim to be one of the world’s greenest.
Seven Western states, including California, have joined with four Canadian provinces to launch their own cap-and-trade system by 2012. Both groups of states have bypassed Washington and entered talks with the European Union with the aim of creating a global carbon-trading regime.
Now that Obama is removing the federal veto for California’s ambitious plan to cut tailpipe emissions, 13 other states have announced they will copy the same tough standard, which will effectively require automakers’ vehicle sales in those states to reach an average fuel economy of 43 miles per gallon (six liters per 100 kilometers) by 2020. That would get California drivers closer to the 44mpg standard the European Union is phasing in.
I will be grateful for the day when my 2007 Prius gets average mileage. Even happier when its mileage is considered terrible!
