95% Renewables

Tom Friedman is visiting in Costa Rica and reporting on their energy and environmental policies. He wrote something pretty amazing:

“In Costa Rica, the minister of environment sets the policy
for energy, mines, water and natural resources,” explained Carlos M. Rodríguez,
who served in that post from 2002 to 2006. In most countries, he noted,
“ministers of environment are marginalized.” They are viewed as people who try
to lock things away, not as people who create value. Their job is to fight
energy ministers who just want to drill for cheap oil.

But when Costa
Rica put one minister in charge of energy and environment, “it created a very
different way of thinking about how to solve problems,” said Rodríguez, now a
regional vice president for Conservation International. “The environment sector
was able to influence the energy choices by saying: ‘Look, if you want cheap
energy, the cheapest energy in the long-run is renewable energy. So let’s not
think just about the next six months; let’s think out 25 years.’ ”

As a
result, Costa Rica hugely invested in hydro-electric power, wind and
geo-thermal, and today it gets more than 95 percent of its energy from these
renewables. In 1985, it was 50 percent hydro, 50 percent oil. More interesting,
Costa Rica discovered its own oil five years ago but decided to ban drilling —
so as not to pollute its politics or environment! What country bans oil
drilling?