To reduce the United States of America's considerable waste of energy, the most efficient way is to augment the price of energy enough so that everybody notice, and modify their behavior accordingly. That can be achieved with much higher taxes on fuel and electricity. Those of modest means that are adversely affected should be compensated, by direct payment from the State, as they are in France. It would help with the United States' deficit too, instead of borrowing ever more Chinese money.
Taxes on energy are about eleven (11) times higher in France than in the USA (and at similar levels in all the advanced countries of Europe, including big oil exporters such as Norway and Britain). It is unfortunate that many Americans who profess to reduce U.S. energy usage do not dare to mention heavy taxation of energy, the only method that is sure to work, to reduce American energy waste. France per capita Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions are less than a third of that of the USA. (And the French rose their taxes on energy even higher a few weeks ago!)
Trying to change society without changing taxes is like trying to change the world, by chanting forlornly to the raging ocean. Beautiful, romantic, but useless, and pathetic.
Patrice Ayme,
Patriceayme.wordpress.com
P/S: Other measures could and should be taken to help develop a greener economy [Congress gave a low interest loan of 25 billions dollars to car makers for greener cars (the problem with these sorts of gifts to the corporate USA is that corruption tends to swallow all the billions); see T. Friedman for still more ideas: NYT, October 21, 2008]. But the point I made here is that taxing energy heavily should be the first thing to do, because it creates an arena for a greener free market. Free markets are free, but only within the arenas the law gives them. Heavy taxation means green liberation.
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