Germany’s been a global leader in energy policy for some time now.  (For what it’s worth, we picked Germany as the “model” for the Cascadia Scorecard’s energy indicator because it was doing German oil consumption per capita, 1997-2007such a bang-up job with its energy policy.)

And if anything, it looks like their efforts to reduce emissions are picking up steam:

German use of oil, gas and coal in 2007 fell by 5.6 per cent compared with 2006, according to a new report from [oil company] BP…

The report emerged as the German government passed a new round of environmental laws designed to ensure the country meets ambitious carbon dioxide reduction targets.

I took a look at the BP Statistical Review of World Energy—and the news report is correct: Germany has made some impressive strides in reducing energy consumption, not just recently, but over the course of a decade.  The graph to the right shows oil consumption per person—which has fallen by 18 percent since 1997.

File this in the “Yes, sane energy policy is possible” file.