WSJ's "most intertwined politico-economic themes of the year"

In today's Morning Brief email, The Wall Street Journal's Joseph Schuman mostly asks questions about 2008, instead of trying to answer them. But after noting the theme of innovation (good for Apple, bad for mortgage financiers, missing for Bush in Iraq, except perhaps locally), then the pesky presidential question, and under the heading "More Key Questions" he makes a fairly definitive statement. It's our headline, which is only missing the subject: "Oil prices and the environmental effects of burning carbon fuels -- namely, global warming -- are likely to be..."

My question: when will the WSJ Editorial Board notice reality?

A sustainable gas station?

This might be the last place you'd look for green design, but why not? Gasoline or some kind of transportation fuel will be with us for a long time, and the places we have to stop to keep our personal transportation vehicles going are ubiquitous. BP alone has 25,000 worldwide. Hence, "Helios House" -- the first gas station built out of recycled and recyclable materials. Commissioned by BP, the oil company that is trying to appear greener than thou, the structure is built of concrete consisting of crushed, unrecyclable glass, with sinks and toilets of aluminum scrap, and covered with solar panels (BP brand, of course!). Visit it at the corner of Robertson and Olympic Boulevards in Los Angeles. About the station.

Replacing long-tube fluorescent lights

Well, this turned out to be easy, at least as far as you can get online (that is, without actually climbing up and replacing the bulbs). I simply Googled "replace long-tube fluorescent ceiling fixture compact fluorescent LED" -- since Google pays no attention to "stop" words -- and found Green Energy Management LLC, whose owner, Cort Cary, has apparently been in the energy saving light business for more than 30 years (according to the site). Long-tube fluorescents (okay, it took me a couple of wrong turns to learn the jargon "long-tube") apparently are also known as T-8, and LED versions save 75% of the energy used. Typical payback, per GEM, at least, is a year. What are you waiting for?

"Why Wal-Mart and P&G are disclosing greenhouse emissions--and you should too."

I admit, it's getting harder to find a publication that does not have some green to it. But still it warms the very cockles of my heart when I see business magazines covering and recommending climate-conscious action. Fast Company, for instance, has a column by David Roberts, who also writes for one of the original environmental publications, now on the web, grist.org. In the Dec 07/Jan 08 issue, Roberts notes that more and more companies are disclosing their sorry status --GHG-wise, voluntarily. In part, it's to establish green cred, which is an increasingly valuable part of a company's brand equity. But it's also "because it's always better to know than not to know." Such companies -- at least a few hundred so far-- will be ahead of the game come the nearly certain carbon market, and increased regulations.

But Roberts' most powerful argument is that "carbon emission...[is] gaseous evidence of inefficiency. It costs money to create carbon dioxide, so cutting emissions slashes costs."