It is amazing how fast America is switching over to natural gas. I read today that railroads are considering changing from diesel to natural gas, which is cheaper and cleaner. Power plants are quickly substituting natural gas for coal. All this is helping the U.S. reduce its carbon emissions while becoming less and less dependent on imported oil. U.S. carbon emissions have been reduced by 13% in the last five years and we are down to 1994 levels. If this goes on much longer, the U.S. will reach its Kyoto goals w/o having ratified the treaty thanks mostly to natural gas.
I have written about this natural gas boom many times before. It is as close to a gift from God as it is possible to get in the energy world. Natural gas is clean, abundant and American. Better yet, it is widely distributed in the U.S., so the prosperity will be widely shared.
Another interesting permutation is genetically modified food. They are also reducing CO2 emissions by improving land use. And now investors are looking for ways to adapt to global warming and many environmentalists are embracing nuclear power as a sure way of delaying global warming.
I think it is very interesting that the solutions of many of our environmental problems come from sources that many of the traditionalists neither expect nor even much like. CO2 emissions are reduced by the use of a fossil fuel extracted in a new and more efficient way. Land use is improved by the use of genetically modified crops, the nemesis of many ostensibly green consumers. Nuclear power may save the world and the free enterprise system will help us adapt to changes.