| Welcome to WIREC -- Where's the Energy Department? |
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| Written by Samantha Hulkower | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 04 March 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Editor's Note: EnviroWonk writer Samantha Hulkower will be blogging throughout the week from the WIREC conference in Washington, D.C.
Today kicks off the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, a Tuesday-Thursday party celebrating renewable energy, thrown by USDA and the State Department. Hmmm, would have thought the Energy Department might have a hand in something like this, but let us not nitpick. There are three parts to WIREC: the Ministerial Conference where decision makers from around the world come to discuss things and make promises; the Trade Show, where businesses show off their latest innovations; and the Business Conference, where businesses, innovators, and others not important enough to be invited to the political shindig (EnviroWonk included) network, rub elbows, and otherwise have their second-class conference. All of the Business Conference conferences look interesting enough, covering such power sources as solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, hydro, and TWO rooms running programs about biofuels all three days, but we are really looking forward to the "Taste of America" reception Wednesday afternoon and reporting back on what America tastes like (we think it'll be Miller High Life). The eye-popping cost of a barrel of oil, now generally trading above the symbolic $100 mark, isn't just due to increase demand coupled with the all-but-certain decline in global supply. Since oil is traded in the once strong greenback, the decreasing value of the U.S. dollar is responsible for more expensive oil prices; less valuable currency buys less oil, so you need to spend more to buy the same amount. Stronger currencies, like the Euro and British Pound, can still buy about the same amount of oil for about the same price, although they have been paying much more than Americans for years. It's no surprise then that they have smaller cars and bike-friendlier cities. But in a country where the Governor of the most eco-conscientious state is driving around in a biodiesel-powered Hummer, we don't see Americans kicking the car habit any time soon. |
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Yeah, OK, we can be the change that we want to see in the world. But unless powerful people in powerful positions want to be that change as well, nothing's going to change.
So now, finally, there's a place where you can go for news and analysis of politics from an environmental perspective.