Iceland's Full Steam Ahead on Energy Saving

REYKJAVIC -- Iceland is proof positive that being green and curbing global warming doesn't necessarily require higher costs and lost personal comfort.

This frosty island nation that's just a five-hour flight from New York has been weaning itself from its fossil-fuel diet for more than 30 years.

The results: cheap electricity that's so abundant that the country doesn't know what to do with it all, streamlined heating that's almost entirely renewable, an expanding industrial sector and a high quality of life that centers on spas and outdoor pools.

When the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, several world leaders, including Richard Nixon, vowed to make their countries energy self-sufficient and reduce their vulnerability to the whims of OPEC. But when oil prices softened again, unlike us, Icelanders didn't leave their resolve in the dust of their SUVs (though they like their SUVs as much as we do). ...