Yes, energy is more expensive in those countries, which is a big reason why they have gotten so good at conserving it. And yes, their cities are closer together, etc.

I remember visiting Holland 25 years ago, and even back then they heated water with electricity at night, because the rates were cheaper.

I think that higher energy prices — somewhat — and lots of conservation and efficiency — are clearly the direction the US is heading.

No, it’s not going to be easy. But to save the future of this planet for our grandchildren, it’s not so bad of a direction.

After all, Europeans invented pizza!

Cap and trade will enrich a new class of financial speculator at a cost of billions of dollars to American consumers. It will also drive-out manufacturing of every description. Even non-polluting Microsoft says it will move jobs overseas because cap and trade “makes U.S. jobs more expensive.” Cap and trade is worse than a tax because only 15% of the proceeds from auctioned permits go into our national treasury.

And the kicker? We’ll never even know if cap and trade ever worked.

If instead the United States had a national mandate to replace coal generation plants with natural gas and nuclear energy, plus if we replaced our commuter cars with battery-powered electric cars, we would drastically reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce CO2 emissions faster and beyond the proposed cap and trade targets.

– Robert Moen, http://www.energyplanUSA.com