New York Times
om svensk miljö- och energipolitik
5 februari 2006

New York Times publicerar på söndagen den 5 februari 2006 en artikel om svensk miljöpolitik där bland andra statsminister Göran Persson intervjuas. I artikeln skildras svenska ansträngningar för att minska oljeberoende och utveckla användningen av mer miljöpositiv energi, bl a ethanol. Också andra europeiska länders energipolitik beskrivs.

I artikeln pekar statsministern på vad som skiljer och förenar svensk och amerikansk miljö- och energipolitik.

Som helhet lämnar artikelförfattaren en starkt positiv bild av vad Sverige redan uppnått och strävar efter framöver när det gäller energibesparingar och utnyttjande av förnybar energi.

(I New York Times Magazine publiceras idag även en längre artikel om situationen för muslimska invandrare i Sverige: "Islam, Sweden and the Cultural Contradictions of the Welfare State. Reporter: Christopher Caldwell.)

Claes Thorson
Pressråd, Washington


The New York Times
February 5, 2006

Sweden and U.S. Agree About the Oil Dependency Problem, but for Different Reasons

By ALAN COWELL

STOCKHOLM, Feb. 4 — After he heard President Bush tell Americans they were "addicted to oil," Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden said he was relieved that "at last there's one more who understands the problem."

Indeed, in a conversation, he seemed to suggest that Sweden's example might offer what could be termed an American detox.

As the leader of a country that has thrust itself to the fore of environmental protection, and that has promised to greatly reduce its remaining dependence on oil by 2020, Mr. Persson has sought to persuade Sweden's motorists to use less gasoline, fill their tanks with ethanol and promote ways of heating homes without polluting the atmosphere.

Like Mr. Bush, Mr. Persson is worried about his country's dependence on vulnerable foreign oil supplies. He is troubled that reliance on oil is itself perilous because of the economic impact of ever-higher petroleum prices.

"So something of what we are doing could also be solutions for the United States," Mr. Persson said Friday in an interview as he paced his high-ceilinged office, which has broad picture windows that scan the spires of Stockholm's old city.

But there are differences, Mr. Persson acknowledged, and this land of nine million people with its vast empty spaces reaching far to the Arctic north is scarcely a perfect exemplar for America. Unlike the United States, it has been blessed with two major sources of energy owing to its geography and recent history: rivers and nuclear power stations, each of which produces nearly half of Sweden's electric power without greenhouse gases.

And, Mr. Persson said, his vision of using the country's farms to produce the raw materials for alternative fuels from wheat, trees and other agricultural products is dependent on a resource that parts of the United States cannot always rely on.

"In the end it's about water," he said. With its abundant rains, Sweden "is one of those countries that produces a crop that doesn't need an artificial supply of water," unlike big energy consumers like the United States, India and China.

For all that, though, this country offers itself as a model of energy use.

Last October, for instance, Mona Sahlin, the minister for sustainable development, raised eyebrows with the ambitious forecast that "Sweden has the chance to be an international model and a successful actor in export markets for alternative solutions."

"The aim is to break dependence on fossil fuels by 2020," she said. "By then, no home will need oil for heating. By then, no motorist will be obliged to use gasoline as the sole option available. By then, there will always be better alternatives to oil."

Mr. Persson, admitting the date his minister cited was more a goal than a deadline, said: "It is a bold target — five years ahead of the U.S. If we end up being independent of oil in 2023, no one will accuse us of anything."

Unlike Mr. Bush, Mr. Persson, along with many Europeans, is propelled by fears that climate change will wreak havoc unless nations and industries cut emissions of greenhouse gases. And, equally, he says he is convinced that renewable energy will make good business sense for those who take the lead in developing it.

"I have an emphasis on climate change; he doesn't," Mr. Persson said, comparing his policies with those of Mr. Bush. "I have an emphasis on business opportunities; he doesn't. But otherwise, it's the same argument."

Across Europe, many nations are seeking to reduce their production of greenhouse gases: Denmark now derives nearly 20 percent of its power from windmills. Britain and Germany are reconsidering plans to phase out nuclear power. In Finland, where Europe's first new reactor in 15 years is already under construction, nuclear power seems to be back in favor, as it always has been in France, which relies on nuclear generators for most of its electricity.

But Sweden has adopted a more conscious drive to sponsor alternate fuels for homes and cars. In many neighborhoods, for instance, a central furnace using biological fuels provides hot water for all the homes in the area. Tens of thousands of homeowners have replaced oil-fired central heating with boilers using wood-based pellets, significantly reducing Sweden's dependence on oil for home heating.

Heating oil sales have fallen by 85 percent in recent years, according to the Swedish Petroleum Institute.

Saab and Volvo, Swedish automakers that are owned by General Motors and Ford, respectively, have introduced models using renewable fuels.

Around 450 of Sweden's 4,000 gas stations offer fuels made from renewable energy sources like ethanol and the number is expected to rise to 2,400 by 2010. In 2005, Sweden produced about 23 percent of its ethanol, using wheat as the raw material, and most of the rest was imported from Brazil, said Ulf Svahn, managing director of the Swedish Petroleum Institute.

Of the 4.2 million cars already on Sweden's roads, he said, fewer than 100,000 have been converted to use alternate fuels. Yet the incentives to trade in that old gasoline-powered Saab or Volvo for a new bio-car are considerable.

Tax breaks mean ethanol-based fuel costs about one-third less at the pump than ordinary gasoline, even though ethanol costs about 40 percent more to produce, Mr. Svahn said. Moreover, motorists driving cars powered by renewable energy sources are exempt from certain tolls and from public parking fees.

Oil companies have already agreed to mix 5 percent ethanol into their gasoline, he said, to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and want to double that. But, he said, the consequences of the move toward renewable fuel sources were still unclear. "We are in a learning curve here," he said.

Mr. Persson's political foes made a similar point. "The Swedish government is very fond of setting targets," said Lars Lindblad, the environment spokesman of the opposition Moderate Party. "But it has problems with delivery."