The link about the EU's energy efficiency push contains the gem 'European standards and norms in the car sector and mobile telephony have already become accepted in many countries worldwide, to the annoyance of Washington, which believes the EU sets too many rules.'

I mean really, since when did conservation become a public or social virtue?

And as for the people who think the world is like America -
'Meli Luigi, director-general of the European "white goods" manufacturers association CECED, said a voluntary approach to raising energy efficiency had already led to a cut of about 40 per cent in the power consumed by fridges in little over a decade. The industry body fears new rules laid down in Brussels could put manufacturers in a "straitjacket".'

Imagine that - both government mandated and voluntary approaches to saving energy and increasing efficiency. And even after achieving a fairly impressive reduction, continuing to push harder instead of claiming to be number 1.

The history of how Greenpeace marketed and sold its own completely CFC free refrigerator on the open market is yet another way to see change in action - the link at http://xs2.greenpeace.org/~ozone/greenfreeze is not exactly unbiased, but it is accurate -
'In the spring of 1992 Greenpeace brought together scientists who had extensively researched the use of propane and butane as refrigerants, with an East German company DKK Scharfenstein. The company had been producing refrigerators for 50 years and was the leading household appliance manufacturer in the former East Germany. After reunification, however, it faced severe economic problems and was due to be closed down.

The meeting between the scientists and DKK Scharfenstein resulted in the birth of 'Greenfreeze' technology for domestic refrigeration. Greenfreeze refrigerators use hydrocarbons for both the blowing of the insulation foam and the refrigerant and they are entirely free of ozone destroying and global warming chemicals.

........

The major household appliance manufacturers, who had already invested in HFC-134a refrigeration technology as the substitute for CFCs, at first claimed that the 'Greenfreeze' concept would not work. However, upon realizing that the first completely -CFC, HCFC and HFC-free refrigerator was about to come on the market, and recognizing the market appeal of a truly environmentally friendly refrigerator, the four biggest producers, Bosch, Siemens, Liebherr and Miele gave up their resistance to the hydrocarbon technology, and introduced their own line of 'Greenfreeze' models in the spring of 1993.'

More than ten years later, major appliance manufacturers still consider it a positive selling point to mention how they manufacture their products in this manner - our new Liebherr refrigerator certainly proclaimed it in any number of ways, from the brochure to the packaging to the owner's manual.

I realize that this doesn't resolve any big picture discussions, but the U.S. is not the entire world.