Sweden Vows Freedom From Oil By 2020

[hatrack]

Writing in Swedish publication Dagens Nyheter recently, Minister Sahlin said that Sweden had the chance to be an international model in being the first government to break the dependency on fossil fuels. She claimed that, through a series of carrots and sticks, the country would boost its renewables sector and reach a state of energy self-sufficiency enhancing both an environmental and economic advantage.

"The whole world is now dreading the problems brought about by dependence on oil," she wrote, highlighting the way that the damage wrought by hurricanes such as Katrina had focused the world's attention on oil dependency.

"The Government is therefore setting a new policy target: the creation of the conditions necessary to break Sweden's dependence on fossil fuels by 2020. A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices. The price of oil has tripled since 1996! Old oil price records are now being beaten at a rapid rate."

She proposed a number of measures to achieve these goals including:
# Tax relief for conversion from oil, particularly for single family homes, but also public sector buildings to encourage conversion to renewable energy.
# Higher targets for renewable energy so that the entire energy supply comes from renewable sources.
# Tax breaks for renewable fuels for the transport sector;
# Greater research and new knowledge for a renewable society;
# Continued investment in district heating - which has increased radically in Sweden in recent years - and financial incentives to use biofuels in this.

EDIT

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=10987&channel=0

[tuvor]

1. Well, the US gov't isn't ever going to lead the way on something like this

Boy, first lutefisk, then ABBA, then the Hives, and now this.

Good on ya, Sverige!

[mom cat]

2. Maybe they believe in science, or logic or some other such

heresy.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. You lucky bastards

I moved to the wrong country :(

[Oerdin]

4. They always talk about

Oil independence or energy independence but real that is a pipe dream. Independence will never happen and instead they should be concentrating on minimizing their dependence since independence can't happen. Run the numbers any way you like and enact any policy you like short of outlawing cars and you'll still need oil. The best they can hope for, replacing all fossil fuel power plants with nuclear or hydro with a few minor other sources, won't work because Sweden's greens hate both hydro and nuclear for ideological (if not logical) reasons. They have a good mass transit system which helps and most cars sold in Sweden are fuel efficient but they're never going to be free of the need for oil.

[phantom power]

5. Some day, everybody is going to be oil independent

for one very simple reason: it will be gone. Or, whatever is left will be too expensive to extract, which is the same thing.

[NNadir]

6. Sweden will not shut its nuclear capacity.

I expect that Sweden will ultimately, like Finland, build new nuclear capacity instead.

The Swedish "nuclear phase out" plan is over 25 years old. Twenty-five years ago, the renewable promise had not been tested. Everyone thought it could work. Many people thought nuclear power could not work as well as it has. Twenty-five years later, the issues have been drawn into stark relief. In fact public opinion about nuclear energy is rather high on it.

If Sweden were serious about shutting nuclear capacity, there would not be approving uprates of existing nuclear plants.

As for oil, we live in the golden age of chemistry. We can make any set of simple molecules aliphatic molecules, we wish to make so long as we have energy.

If humanity survives global climate change, maybe not a good bet, nuclear technology will be well developed and prepared to provide that energy.

[progressoid]

7. Fish oil?

[EVDebs]

8. Amory Lovins' Oilendgame at www.oilendgame.com site

If OUR government won't listen maybe the EU will at least. Come to think of it the biggest Iranian threat is requiring oil payments to be made in euros rather than dollars. Now THAT will really cause some serious conservation measures !

[SnoopDog]

9. One trillion American Dollars for illegal Iraq war ? Or...

... 50,000,000 homes get solar energy ($20,000 per home).

We have to do this to survive. Energy has to become a 'right' and not recurring income for corporations.

[julianer]

10. Exactly

Same with the houses they put the solar panels on! It's a right!

[jpak]

11. Today Sweden. Tomorrow....the World!!!!!

:evilgrin: