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A timely piece of reporting by
Leila Abboud in The Wall Street Journal this morning (the web link isn’t here because you can read it online only if you subscribe) shows how Denmark managed to become energy independent and stabilize its global warming pollution while doubling its economic growth.
The key element was a national decision after the Arab oil
embargo in the 1970s to gradually raise taxes on the consumption of fossil
fuels while taking ambitious steps to develop wind power and conserve energy in
buildings, industrial processes and electrical appliances
Abboud
quotes Peter Bach, a civil engineer at the Danish Energy Authority, on the
aggressive intervention and regulation policies Denmark launched: “You can’t just
sit back and wait for market forces to do this for you,” said Mr. Bach.
So, for
example, the Danes developed cogeneration technology at the municipal level to
use the heat generated by small electric power plants to heat homes, offices
and factories, which now supplies energy to 61 percent of Denmark’s
buildings at a lower cost than natural gas.
The Danish
government introduced new building codes that required better insulation and energy
efficient windows and doors that reduced Denmark’s heating bill by 20
percent, despite a 30 percent increase in floorspace nationwide.
More
recently, the center-right government passed a law that electric utilities have
to meet a certain level of energy savings each year, but left it up to the
utilities to decide how—including a credit trading system.
What all
this seems to show is that a modern industrial economy can indeed achieve
energy independence and stabilize its global warming footprint without undue
harm to its standard of living.
As Ms.
Abboud points out, however, Danish society puts a higher priority on a clean
environment, social welfare, generous healthcare, free education and guaranteed
pensions than on competitiveness, profits, low taxes and unbridled individualism.
Hamlet, the
Prince of Indecision, has left the building.
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