Americans battle over going green

energy


By Tom Leonard in Woodstock
Last Updated: 1:16am BST 16/04/2007
Up on the roof of Woodstock town hall, two very different Americas were separated by just 20ft.
Its large, flat surface was covered by 112 solar panels - an early manifestation of the resolution of the town council last month to become, within a decade, the first US community to be "carbon neutral" - that is, to achieve no net emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Randolph Horner on the town hall roof
Down on the main street below, however, at least 50 per cent of the morning traffic through this pretty little town in upstate New York was made up of enormous sports utility vehicles and flat-bed trucks. The scene provided an obvious reality check on the optimism of America's environmental movement.Just as a particularly vast SUV rumbled past, Randolph Horner, a renewable energy developer, broke off from explaining the panels' potential. "When we see a monster like that, it's fair to ask how we're ever going to offset all this consumption," he said. "Well, that's America's challenge."
And more and more Americans are taking up that challenge. At the weekend, in excess of 1,300 events were organised as part of the Step It Up campaign to persuade Congress to require an 80 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.
With the White House still dragging its feet over global warming, many believe that local action must force a shift in America's energy-guzzling policies. And, to completely mangle a line from Frank Sinatra, if the greens can't make it in Woodstock, they can't make it anywhere.
The town, synonymous with the 1969 rock festival and still festooned with "Hippies always welcome" signs, has clung to its counter-culture, image.
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Its generally affluent 6,214-strong population already subsidises wind power through their electricity bills, and there was no local opposition when the council, acting on a plan designed by Mr Horner, unanimously passed the carbon resolution.
Locals are now being encouraged to do everything from ride bicycles to fit solar panels to their homes.
"We're hoping to lead by example," said Jeremy Wilber, the town council leader. "It's about us convincing federal government that, although this issue involves changes in our lifestyles, we are willing to accept those changes."
Woodstock may have the most ambitious plan but it is not alone. Another 415 cities and towns - representing 58 million Americans - have also signed up to cutting carbon emissions.
Recent local measures include San Francisco's decision to ban plastic shopping bags, while Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's governor, has been singing the praises of biodiesel fuel.
Yet while 70 per cent of ordinary Americans may now be telling pollsters that they regard global warming as a serious problem, it seems attitudes are more contradictory than first appears.
Energy experts noted recently that US motorists are not shunning gas-guzzling cars nearly so much as they did the last time oil prices shot up, during the late 1970s.
According to Mr Wilber, however, the challenge is not so much about dropping old habits as re-acquiring even older ones.
"Prior to the 1950s, America had a history of frugality - we used things twice in the home," he said. "We don't need to create anything new in society. It's just a matter of going back to that tradition."