It must have been four months ago, during a trip of mine to the UK when everything suddenly started hinting at an interesting development: 2006 seemed like the year when megacorp. became vocal about ecology, energy consumption etc. Huge advertising posters at LHR, advising about fuel, electricity conservation etc. ‘Green’ products in industry sectors that never really cared before (e.g. automotive, air travel), frequent mentions of environmental issues on T.V., climate change etc. on the mainstream news — topics that used to be considered outcast, or typical of independent, alternative media outlets or ‘tree-huggers’ before. While it is true that the ‘eco-friendly’ gears of the industry were set in motion a few years back — BP changing its name to ‘beyond petroleum’ in 2002 springs to mind — that was the exception rather than the norm especially for a western business world that is still largely silent when it comes to alternative energy sources and ecology.
With the price of crude oil reaching US$75 and an increasing number of news outlets incessantly babbling about the significance of oil in our ‘western way of life’ and the ‘impending crisis with Iran’ even the average SUV-driving, tree-hating, 150+kg weighing (just metric here) U.S. citizen will probably take notice. And when that country’s president, apparently somewhat popular among the ‘average’ (see definition above) citizens of that country, visits Sacramento on the U.S. Earth Day (cf. the original one) and talks about the importance of energy independence (as he did again again yesterday) it’s more or less certain that people will become somewhat aware of the frivolousness of their lifestyle. Or maybe not.
Is it that the U.S., the ‘heaviest’ polluter of all kinds of pollution, the largest consumer of oil etc., suddently became even fractionally similar to most European countries, exemplified perhaps by Germany or Austria, where eco-consciousness (sanity?) has been a significant part of the average lifestyle for decades?
Most probably not. A lot of people, both in the U.S. and abroad, have been vocal about how the U.S. could include ‘green’ measures in its economic policy, effectively giving businesses incentives to be eco-friendly. This has not happened for a long time, approximately as long as W has been governing that country, under the excuse that eco-friendly measures (such as those described in the Kyoto treaty) would seriously hurt the U.S. economy. There are really no indications that any significant effort is made by the U.S. government to change is policy towards the environment.
Then, what did change between then and now to warrant the torrent of eco-babble by the U.S. Administration, MegaCorp Inc. and the Mass Media? The immediate effect of high and costly oil prices along with a plummeting rating for Bush and his administration, as well as the the realisation of the fragility of the american lifestyle through its dependence on oil combined with the strategic need to shield the country from foreign factors, including ‘unstable or unfriendly’ countries (such as Iran, perhaps even more so now in anticipation of a possible U.S. attack on that country).
A popular, and very interesting, topic of discussion that I have been aware of for a while (mostly due to my own interest in ecology and alternative energy) has been the revival of the Brazilian ethanol (Álcool) programme, originating in the mid-70s by the, then military junta government, as a response to the Oil Crisis of that decade. At the time, contrary to most Western European and North American countries, Brazil could not cope with the sudden price hikes in oil and its economy was brought to its knees. The low oil prices between the early nineties and the early 21st century, almost consigned the biofuel programme to to history. Almost, because in 2003, things started changing, once again. In two short years, Brazil has managed to turn things around:
- All fuel sold in Brazil today contains at least 15% ethanol
- New automobiles sold there can run on gas or ethanol or mixed (flex-fuel). Ironically a lot of those automobiles are made by U.S. companies such as G.M.
- Most cars sold can run on E85 (15% gasoline, 85% ethanol) or pure ethanol
- Brazil is aiming at total fuel independence by 2008 at the latest.
Now, it seems most U.S. media have — to some extent — covered this, as they’ve covered the fact that e.g. France generates 78% of its electricity with nuclear reactors, although that’s hardly ‘clean energy’. All of this attention, ties in perfectly with this year’s Bush’s SotU address, and his general desire to get rid of his country’s dependence of foreign oil. W announced he was raising the clean-energy sources research budget by 22% (Advanced Energy Initiative), although many critics think that’s too little, too late.
It’s quite ironic when on the same day as his post California visit speech about the economy and alternative energy sources, Bush eased the environmental rules on gasoline. Although I’d hope that in the name of national security or the economy, even Bush might engage in an eco-friendly policy, I guess some things never change…
In Europe
As a closing remark I’d like to mention what’s happening in the EU. Despite the fact that some of the largest oil companies (BP, Shell) are historically European (though today multinational) corporations, Europe currently lags the U.S. when it comes to alternative fuels for transport: There are virtually no hybrid (petrol/electric) automobiles on sale, and very limited substantial research on hydrogen powered engines, ethanol, etc. Europe, on the other hand, has more efficient and lower consumption vehicles as well as a large (in some cases world-leading) investment in wind power , nuclear power, solar power, geothermal, tidal and other power sources. It also has a much more sophisticated and efficient rail network and better mass transport systems in metropolitan areas.
Yet, while the European Commission Environmental Technology Action Plan (ETAP) contains some actions pertaining to renewable power sources, biofuel and fuel cell research, it does not expressly cover the research, production or use of ethanol or other immediately effective power sources. I am not sure what’s keeping ethanol powered cars, as those in Brazil, from becoming common in Europe yet. Moving from leaded to unleaded petrol took approximately two or three years, and required new automobiles for most people. The existence and low price of Flexfuel engines today could make the transition to ethanol or mixed fuel easy and cheap for many, could lower the price of transport in the EU and could alleviate some of the issues with the Common Agricultural Policy through the production of the corn/sugar/other plants required for ethanol production in parts of the EU. Not to mention vastly improving the environment of near-toxic areas such as the greater Athens area.
Gas pump image from Flickr (iboy_daniel). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Licence