"The obvious place to start is energy: The U.S. government provides about $25 billion in annual subsidies to fossil-fuel industries; environmentalists hope to eliminate them, or shift them into wind and solar power, energy-efficient appliances and other clean technologies. "
In the future, though, the climate debate will be much more than an energy debate. We would need cleaner power and fuel to cut emissions, but we would also need to use less power and fuel. That would require changes to our energy-gorging routines -- more biking, walking, carpooling, telecommuting and mass transit; smarter growth patterns; less energy-intensive agriculture; more recycling; less waste. We would need an ecologically sustainable economy, not the current cheap-oil-based one that Earth Policy Institute President Lester Brown calls the "throwaway economy."
The climate emergency is not yet driving these debates; it is only offering "now more than ever" ammunition for supporters of various policies. Last year, Congress passed a "comprehensive" energy bill that did nothing to cure our oil addiction and a $286 billion transportation bill that will mostly fund new sprawl roads. Corn ethanol -- arguably the least efficient biofuel -- has gained new support from would-be presidential candidates such as Sen. George Allen, R-Va., but it has always had plenty of backers.
