The UK has been partly featherbedded by the so-called dash to gas as fuel for feeding the power gen plants, but it is also fair to say there is widespread awareness and action on energy conservation (both by individuals and government). However painful to the rural economy, we have swallowed major tax rises on fuel for transport (ahead of inflation by leaps) for several years in succession, and this year have a tax on energy used by industry.

Dubya's America needs to think long and hard if it is not to be branded the dirty old man of the world, addicted to swilling energy like a foul old drunkard brown bagging it on the sidewalk. And this is from a friend