The United Kingdom, which is already world famous for its green gardens and even greener countryside, is about to get even greener.
That’s because according to a new report from Japanese car maker Nissan, it could soon have more electric car charging stations than traditional gas stations.
The U.K. is currently home to around 4,100 electric charging stations and 8,400 gas stations, but
if currents trends continue, it will have over 7,900 charging stations and just 7,870 gas stations by 2020.
Once again our European friends are leaving us in the dust.
With about 12 gas stations for every one electric charging station, it’s going to take a long time for the United States to catch up with the United Kingdom’s all-out embrace of the electric car revolution.
So why is that?.
Why does our green infrastructure consistently lag behind that of other developed countries like the U.K., Germany, or Denmark, which is leading the way in wind power generation?
Well, there’s really no simple answer to that question, but let me try.
The fact that we have such pathetic green infrastructure is in part due to the fact that our utility companies are privatized - and therefore out of the hands of We the People .
They’re beholden only to their own profit motive, and not to the interests of our planet or the customers they serve.
If the opposite were the case and our utility companies were nationalized, or at least controlled by local cooperatives, things would be very, very different.
We could direct them to source their power from renewable sources like wind and solar, and not just super-profitable fossil fuels (which, by the way, are only profitable because of enormous tax loopholes and the billions of dollars they get in government subsidies).
But our privatized electric infrastructure isn’t the only reason the green revolution has been stunted here in America.
The other major reason we lag behind Europe and other developed regions of the world when it comes to embracing green technology is the simple fact that we have oligarchs working hard to ensure that we remain addicted to the status quo.
These oligarchs work in tandem with private utility companies, and they are the main obstacle to a greener future here in the US.
Not surprisingly, Charles and David Koch -- the Koch brothers -- are a major force in this network of oligarchs.
