EDITORIAL

In Business, November-December, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 6, p. 3

THE RASCALS GO, BUT GREENING TAKES TIME
ANALYSTS of the recent election champion the victories of environmentalists in the battles for renewable energy legislation and related goals, but warn against expecting “vast changes.” For example, while Barbara Boxer of California - who favors mandatory cuts in emissions linked to global warming - will become chairwoman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee, there's still big doubt that “a major environmental agenda can speed through Congress.” Observes a Sierra Club lobbyist: “The environmental community has to recognize how difficult it's going to be to advance with such narrowly held majorities.”

Nevertheless, as the special section on “Making Fuel/Saving Energy” in this In Business issue shows, beginning on page 18 with the report on Building Producer-Owned Energy, as traditional fuel prices climb, “interest in renewable sources has grown as well, in large part because of economics.” Writes Dan Lemke: “Agricultural products and renewable resources are beginning to compete favorably with traditional sources when it comes to cost.”
Three other reports in this section also verify the progress being made: How a North Carolina firm develops solutions to preparing feedstocks to meet specifications that mills need for boiler fuel (p. 20); How new projects in California, Vermont and Michigan are processing organic residuals using the innovative commercial systems in methane digesters (p. 22); and how Wells Fargo has committed itself to the “largest ever” purchase of renewable energy - one more example of how Corporate America is taking steps to curb global warming (p. 25).
While it's a long way from U.S. balloting and election results, we'd like to include mention here of a column by Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times who wrote the other day about how China is reaching its environmental limits: “If it doesn't radically change to greener, more sustainable modes of design, transport, production and power generation, the Chinese miracle is going to turn into an eco-nightmare.”
The column referred to a report in China Daily that at least 24 million acres of cultivated land in China - one-tenth of the country's total arable land - is now polluted, posing a “grave threat” to China's food safety. “More than half its rivers are also polluted, which is why less than nine percent of “drinkable water” met government standards for bacteria in 243 rural supply stations recently tested.” Friedman maintains that the Chinese are missing a major point - that going green is not just a problem, but an opportunity. Pollution represents waste and inefficiency; green companies are always more efficient. When U.S. companies went green, they consistently overestimated the costs and underestimated the savings.
Greening will take time, but it will happen here in Congress - and as far away in China as well.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.