To Kjell in a Handbasket
Norway’s centrist Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned today after losing a vote in parliament yesterday, when the opposition majority ignored his objections and eased pollution laws in order to allow gas-fired power plants to be built in the country. Bondevik of the Christian Democrat Party says gas power plants will raise pollution levels in Norway, which now generates almost all of its electricity from nonpolluting hydropower, and make it more difficult for the nation to meet its commitments under the Kyoto climate change treaty. But the opposition, led by the Labor Party, argues that the gas-fired plants will help eliminate the need for Norway to occasionally import electricity from Denmark, where it is generated by more heavily polluting coal-fired power plants. Norwegian enviro groups are speaking out against the construction of gas-fired plants.