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  3. Just two weeks ago the federal government canceled " FutureGen," a government-industry project to develop technologies for burni

Just two weeks ago the federal government canceled " FutureGen," a government-industry project to develop technologies for burni

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问题     Just two weeks ago the federal government canceled " FutureGen," a government-industry project to develop technologies for burning coal without emitting copious greenhouse gases, demonstrating that the government is incapable of making a credible promise to help industry develop these badly needed technologies over the long haul. 46) Similarly, legislation late last year to increase the fuel economy of U. S. automobiles will have such a small effect on the vehicle fleet that it will barely change the country’s dependence on imported oil and will have almost no impact on carbon emissions. Democrats and Republicans alike claim they want to end the country’s dependence on foreign oil, but neither party actually does much about it.
    47) The only policies that survive in this political vacuum are those that target narrower political interests with more staying power. Thus America has a highly credible policy to promote corn-based etha-nol. As an energy policy it is a very costly and ineffective way to cut dependence on oil. As a global warming policy it is even less cost effective, since large-scale ethanol doesn’t help much in cutting warming gases. 48) Similarly, the United States has a stiff subsidy for renewable electricity—mainly wind and solar plants—because environmentalists are well organized in their support for it. The coal industry periodically, gets money for its favored technologies, as in FutureGen, but even that powerful lobby has a hard time getting the government to stay the course.
    Europe is in danger of contracting the same affliction. 49) To be sure, most European countries long ago started taxing energy as a convenient wray to raise revenues, which fortuitously also makes energy more costly and creates a strong incentive for efficiency. That approach did not originate as an energy policy, but it has emerged as a keystone of Europe’s more successful efforts to tame energy consumption. 50) And Europe is in the midst of shifting policymaking from the individual countries to Brussels, which may create a more coherent approach. But despite these advantages, Europe is notable for its inability to be strategic. For example, Brussels is touting a new pipeline called Nabucco that would help Europe cut its dependence on Russia for its natural gas. So far, Brussels is good at talking about the Nabucco dream but can’t agree on a route, financing, or even on where to get the gas that would replace Russia’s.
    All this means that the underlying forces that are causing high demand for energy (and high prices) and emitting greenhouse gases will be hard to alter. The effort to solve global warming might change this pessimistic iron rule of energy policy, because the environmental community that is the core of the coalition in support of global warming policy is becoming much stronger and has shown staying power. For the moment, however, that is a hypothesis to be proved.
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答案在这种政治真空中得以存留下来的唯一政策，是那些对狭隘的政治利益有持续作用的政策。
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