MIÉRCOLES, 20 DE MARZO 2013

Alexander Freitag S.
Sociedad y Estado de Estados Unidos

ECONOMIC SCENE
A Model for Reducing Emissions

retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/business/us-example-offers-hope-for-cutting-carbon-emissions.html?pagewanted=all

Who would have thought the United States would one day be a leader in cutting greenhouse gas emissions?

It is preoccupied to know that US fuel economy performance for cars and trucks is one of the worst in the developed world.  It is sad to know that only 7 % of the nation´s energy comes from renewable sources.  That is a hard reality that has the US government to face and has to do something about it.
Last month, Obama gave a discourse talking about the nation energy revolution to continue to reduce the CO2 emissions which had fallen 13% since 6 years ago in 2007.

They are assuming that is an important fact, because carbon emissions have never fallen this much. But if we go backwards to history, following the Arab oil embargo of 1973, the US CO2 emission had fallen considerably even American drivers began to buy “taka takas” (Japanese) small cars.

It started to flow an environmental awareness and the president on the time, Jimmy Carter installed gave the example of that environmental conscience putting solar panels on the White House to heat the water.

James Hamilton, an energy economist at the University of California affirmed that “It was irresistible market forces.” not environmental regulation or public concern about global warming.
It is true that the recession of the past years and the upper prices of the gas and fuel, had influenced directly on US drivers to seek another way of transportation.

US government has been working to seek another ways to continue to reduce the CO2 emissions, so in the year of 2007 the share of the nation’s electricity produced by gas-powered generators has jumped to 30 percent from 21 percent. It is a fact that the emissions coming from electricity has fallen but the new fuel brings potential problems of its own. Potentially contaminating local water because the chemicals and methane leaking from the wells.

Instead to act like in the 80´s when Americans fell in love with Ford Pick Ups and Ronald Reagan had the White House solar panels taken down, Obama promised to reduce even more the CO2 emissions in 2020.

Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency in Paris, points out that if civilization is to avoid catastrophic climate change, only about one third of the 3,000 gigatons of CO2 contained in the world’s known reserves of oil, gas and coal can be released into the atmosphere.

In conclusion, I agree with the author of the article, putting a price on emissions of CO2 that reflects the burden they impose on the environmental.
Public policies should be made from local level to federal to search any way to reduce the use of cars and invest in another way of transportation. Government put a new tax on luxury car buyers for example. We´re watching now new changes in our climate, what can we wait for the next generations?. If we want to change something, first of all we have to make that change ourselves.