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ENERGISING THE WORLD

British energy expert David Fleming has been one of the strongest proponents of energy rationing. "The alternative (to the current energy crisis) is to establish a rationing scheme for all uses of energy, covering consumers, industry, the government and its departments," he wrote at one place. The site under review details energy rationing.

This is how it works. Rations of energy are measured in carbon units or oil units. Fleming writes: "When the main purpose is to reduce consumption of all the fuels that contribute to climate change, the proper unit is the carbon unit, defined as one kilogram of the carbon dioxide (and its global warming equivalents) produced when fuel is burnt.Or, if the main purpose is to maintain a fair distribution of scarce supplies of oil (petrol, diesel or fuel oil), rations would be measured in oil units."

This system is similar to the old ration books, except that it is electronic. One of its advantages is that it allows everyone in the scheme to trade their units -- so that, if they run out, or have more units than they need, they can buy or sell them on the market.

Fleming's scheme is innovative. But then does it consider that people in differing geo-political and ecological areas have different energy requirements? And, so their requirements could be different.