I have this on my mind for two reasons today. First, a little factoid I read courtesy of the Sierra Club. As you all may know, compact flourescent lightbulbs are more efficient. But:

Despite the fact that the compact fluorescent bulb generates the same amount of light withone quarter of the electricity,the WTO considers these products to be the same and says thatfederal, state, or local governments cannot prefer one over the other.

   Thank you so-called "free trade"–we can’t save the planet thanks to the World Trade Organization because, well, that would mean actually planning in a smart, environmentally-sound way and that is a no-no thanks to the mantra of so-called "free trade".

   Speaking of planning, The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about how the city of Sacramento–which, in my days as a Californian, many folks referred to as a cow-town–has taken on planning a big way:

Gasoline was less than $2 a gallon when Mike McKeever brought his gospel of bikes, light rail and tightly packed neighborhoods to this state synonymous with cars, freeways and suburban sprawl.

"The development industry was very concerned," says Mr. McKeever, head of Sacramento’s regional planning agency. "The environmental community was openly negative," concerned that it was "just more talk, talk."

Seven years later, with gasoline hurtling past $4 a gallon, Sacramento has become one of the nation’s most-watched experiments in whether urban planning can help solve everything from high fuel prices to the housing bust to global warming.

"They’re really the model," says Steve Winkelman, a transportation expert at the Center for Clean Air Policy.

For decades, backers of "smart-growth" planning principles have preached the benefit of clustering the places where people live more closely with the businesses where they work and shop. Less travel would mean less fuel consumption and less air pollution. Several communities built from scratch upon those principles, such as Celebration in Florida, sprouted across the country. But they were often isolated experiments, connected to their surroundings mainly by car. So, as gasoline remained cheap, the rest of the country continued its inexorable march toward bigger houses and longer commutes.

   The rest of the article reveals that "smart growth" can be profitable and makes people a whole lot happier–less driving time and less cost and decent jobs to boot.