Levine was asked. Levine pointed to the decade following the OPEC oil embargo of the early 1970s as proof that productivity can rise while energy consumption remains flat. The U.S. could return to a period of sustained productivity, Levine said, while significantly reducing, instead of continuing to increase, the release of gases that contribute to global warming. The savings in energy efficiency are likely to offset the costs of implementation. Nevertheless, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases will inevitably result in profound economic changes, with some winners and some losers.
Carbon emissions are an important indicator of efficient energy use.
To reach 1990 levels of carbon emitted into the environment by the year 2010 will require a reduction of some 390 million metric tons a year. A simultaneous attack on several fronts is essential to accomplish this, Levine said. Some 70 percent of the reduction could come from simply switching electric power generation from coal to natural gas. Other reductions would come from using wind power to generate electricity, from burning biomass such as agricultural trash in co-generation plants, from extending the life of nuclear power plants, and from new and restored hydroelectric facilities. A tax on carbon would work, but that doesn't seem politically likely.