Economically Green

I have always been a firm believer that the world at large will become environmentally friendly on a very consistent and predictable basis when we succeed in making the environmentally friendly choice the economically friendly choice. We tend to fail at legislating change.

The focus on trying to legislate and thereby force environmentally friendly choices will continue to fail as it has consistently in the past. Take for example our Environmental Protection Agency. We continually make it harder and harder for auto manufactures to meet the environmentally friendly standards. As such, the most fuel efficient cars in the world fail to meet these standards so they are only sold over elsewhere in the world. Did you know there is a Mini Cooper Diesel that gets 60 - 70 miles per gallon? That car does not meet the EPA standards, so instead, please purchase an SUV that gets 15 miles per gallon, but meets the EPA standards. After waiting patiently for quite some time, Volkswagen was finally able to import the 2009 Jetta TDI. I managed to get my hands on one of these cars with the goal of helping to further research and development on biodiesel. My car is usually powered by Blue Sun biodiesel now – www.gobluesun.com. The VW TDI has significantly improved gas mileage over my previous automobile, no conversion was necessary to run Blue Sun Fusion, and the price of the fuel is comparable to fossil fuel diesel. I have made the environmentally friendly choice about driving that is also the economically friendly choice for me.

If we work to make the environmentally friendly choice the economically more efficient choice, we will not have to spend time convincing people to be environmentally friendly. Instead, we can just let people work towards their own self interest. They will begin to make the environmentally friendly choice simply because it is in their own best interest to do so. For example, I signed up for 100% Windsource® power from my local utility company – Xcel Energy - http://www.xcelenergy.com/Business/RenewableEnergy/Windsource_/Pages/Windsource.aspx . As price for electricity sourced from fossil fuels increased, my utility bill was locked in at a fixed Windsource® price and ended up being lower than it would have been by selecting the less environmentally friendly choice. I believe Xcel Energy is now in a situation in which they are trying to add Windsource® capacity in order to meet demand.

As we all make the choices that help drive environmentally friendly items to become economically friendly, the world at large will become increasingly environmentally friendly.