There is a solution. India and China will endorse conservation, not because it is good for the world, but because it makes economic sense. A kilowatt-hour saved is a kilowatt-hour earned. Amory Lovins coined the term "negawatts" for energy not used. Negawatts are cheaper than megawatts because you don't have to build new power plants. Spend a little bit improving efficiency, and you'll save a lot of money on the fuel you don't buy-and carbon dioxide reduction is thrown in for free. And with steady progress, we can reduce emissions while bringing the standard of living of China and India up to ours-a point I made in a previous column.

The Kyoto approach is actually harmful to the extent that it nudges industry and some in government to oppose conservation, since anything Western industry does to conserve will be undone by development in India and China. But energy efficiency need not be painful for East or West, if done in such a way as to save money. The conservation movement has a long history of endorsing visible but ultimately meaningless steps (e.g. recycle your grocery bags) that make us feel good but accomplish little. Let's not do that again.

Substantial improvement in energy efficiency requires research and development. Some development can be done in the private sector (e.g. hybrid cars) but stockholder pressure has killed most of the truly long-term research in the great industrial laboratories. Long-term anything, especially if it is expensive, requires government support.

The best part about energy efficiency is that it makes economic sense. Let us welcome China and India into the modern standard of living, and maybe save Alaska in the process. Let's pour federal money into research on methods of conservation, methods that don't reduce our standard of living but allow us-and the rest of the world-to enjoy life while using fewer gallons of gasoline. With energy efficiency, rather than dreading the ecological consequences of economic growth, we can have the joy of sharing it with the rest of the world.