Briefing | Green America

Waking up and catching up

Belatedly, and for many reasons, America is embracing environmentalism

|austin, chicago, los angeles and washington, dc

WHEN Jim Webb, the new Democratic senator from Virginia, replied to George Bush's state-of-the-union message, he could bear to endorse only one of the president's proposals. This was the idea of cutting America's petrol (gasoline) consumption by 20% in ten years, by increasing ethanol production to 35 billion gallons a year and raising fuel-efficiency standards for cars.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Waking up and catching up”

The greening of America

From the January 27th 2007 edition

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