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Geo-Greening by Example
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, Op-Ed Columnist -
The New York
Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/opinion/27friedman.html?hp
How
will future historians explain it? How will they possibly explain why President
George W. Bush decided to ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face and
chose instead to spend all his electoral capital on a futile effort to undo the
New Deal, by partially privatizing Social Security? We are, quite simply,
witnessing one of the greatest examples of misplaced priorities in the history
of the U.S. presidency.
"Ah, Friedman, but you overstate the case." No, I
understate it. Look at the opportunities our country is missing - and the risks
we are assuming - by having a president and vice president who refuse to lift a
finger to put together a "geo-green" strategy that would marry geopolitics,
energy policy and environmentalism.
By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil
consumption, we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism and
strengthening the worst governments in the world. That is, we are financing the
U.S. military with our tax dollars and we are financing the jihadists - and the
Saudi, Sudanese and Iranian mosques and charities that support them - through
our gasoline purchases. The oil boom is also entrenching the autocrats in Russia
and Venezuela, which is becoming Castro's Cuba with oil. By doing nothing to
reduce U.S. oil consumption we are also setting up a global competition with
China for energy resources, including right on our doorstep in Canada and
Venezuela. Don't kid yourself: China's foreign policy today is very simple -
holding on to Taiwan and looking for oil.
Finally, by doing nothing to
reduce U.S. oil consumption we are only hastening the climate change crisis, and
the Bush officials who scoff at the science around this should hang their heads
in shame. And it is only going to get worse the longer we do nothing. Wired
magazine did an excellent piece in its April issue about hybrid cars, which get
40 to 50 miles to the gallon with very low emissions. One paragraph jumped out
at me: "Right now, there are about 800 million cars in active use. By 2050, as
cars become ubiquitous in China and India, it'll be 3.25 billion. That increase
represents ... an almost unimaginable threat to our environment. Quadruple the
cars means quadruple the carbon dioxide emissions - unless cleaner, less
gas-hungry vehicles become the norm."
All the elements of what I like to
call a geo-green strategy are known:
We need a gasoline tax that would
keep pump prices fixed at a gallon, even if crude oil prices go down. At a
gallon (premium gasoline averages about a gallon in Europe), we could change the
car-buying habits of a large segment of the U.S. public, which would make it
profitable for the car companies to convert more of their fleets to hybrid or
ethanol engines, which over time could sharply reduce our oil
consumption.
We need to start building nuclear power plants again. The
new nuclear technology is safer and cleaner than ever. "The risks of climate
change by continuing to rely on hydrocarbons are much greater than the risks of
nuclear power," said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network, a
leading energy and strategy consulting firm. "Climate change is real and it
poses a civilizational threat that [could] transform the carrying capacity of
the entire planet."
And we need some kind of carbon tax that would move
more industries from coal to wind, hydro and solar power, or other, cleaner
fuels. The revenue from these taxes would go to pay down the deficit and the
reduction in oil imports would help to strengthen the dollar and defuse
competition for energy with China.
It's smart geopolitics. It's smart
fiscal policy. It is smart climate policy. Most of all - it's smart politics!
Even evangelicals are speaking out about our need to protect God's green earth.
"The Republican Party is much greener than George Bush or Dick Cheney," remarked
Mr. Schwartz. "There is now a near convergence of support on the environmental
issue. Look at how popular [Arnold] Schwarzenegger, a green Republican, is
becoming because of what he has done on the environment in
California."
Imagine if George Bush declared that he was getting rid of
his limousine for an armor-plated Ford Escape hybrid, adopting a geo-green
strategy and building an alliance of neocons, evangelicals and greens to sustain
it. His popularity at home - and abroad - would soar. The country is dying to be
led on this. Instead, he prefers to squander his personal energy trying to take
apart the New Deal and throwing red meat to right-to-life fanatics. What a waste
of a presidency. How will future historians explain it?
