State Representative David Bly, MN District 25B

President Bush describes the US as addicted to oil and promises to do something about it only to be undercut by white house officials who reassure the Saudis that the President didn’t really mean it.

On the other hand, the other day I read that Sweden plans to be world's first oil-free economy; why not set such a goal for Minnesota?

John Vidal, Environment Editor for Great Britain’s The Guardian, points to two parts of the Swedish plan:

· 15-year limit set for switch to renewable energy
· Bio-fuels favored over further nuclear power

Here’s part of the article that appeared in The Guardian:

The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, carmakers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.

The intention, the Swedish government said yesterday, is to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change destroys economies and growing oil scarcity leads to huge new price rises.

"Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020," said Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development. "There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline."

Ms. Sahlin has described oil dependency as one of the greatest problems facing the world. "A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices," she said. "The price of oil has tripled since 1996."

A government official said: "We want to be both mentally and technically prepared for a world without oil. The plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil."

Sweden, which was badly hit by the oil price rises in the 1970s, now gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and relies on fossil fuels mainly for transport. Almost all its heating has been converted in the past decade to schemes which distribute steam or hot water generated by geothermal energy or waste heat. A 1980 referendum decided that nuclear power should be phased out, but this has still not been finalized.

The decision to abandon oil puts Sweden at the top of the world green league table. Iceland hopes by 2050 to power all its cars and boats with hydrogen made from electricity drawn from renewable resources, and Brazil intends to power 80% of its transport fleet with ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane within five years . . .

The Swedish government is working with carmakers Saab and Volvo to develop cars and lorries that burn ethanol and other bio-fuels. Last year the Swedish energy agency said it planned to get the public sector to move out of oil. Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power.

This goal may not be achievable in the time frame but with any effort like this it is bound to generate creative solutions and get people thinking about how to make our way of life less dependent on carbon consumption. All the news about global warming needs to be met with new ideas and investment in changing the course. Our future may well depend on it.