Normally I think Tom Friedman is kind of insufferably self-righteous. But I’m digging this column about energy efficiency and Denmark, he quotes:

“I have observed that in all other countries, including in America, people are complaining about how prices of [gasoline] are going up,” Denmark’s prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told me. “The cure is not to reduce the price, but, on the contrary, to raise it even higher to break our addiction to oil. We are going to introduce a new tax reform in the direction of even higher taxation on energy and the revenue generated on that will be used to cut taxes on personal income — so we will improve incentives to work and improve incentives to save energy and develop renewable energy.”

It has been working in NYC for cigarette addiction – the high price has gotten lots of people to quit. Time to do it for oil too!

Thomas Friedman – Flush With Energy – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com.