
Firefighters near the remains of a freight train explosion in Lac Mégantic, Canada in 2013. The driverless, runaway fuel train exploded, killing dozens of residents.
Mathieu Belanger/Reuters
The Clinton Global Initiative is wrapping up here in NYC. This week's meetings saw the announcement of $4 billion in investments in biofuels and other energy technologies to cut global warming pollution. Yesterday, Sir Richard Branson said that he would invest $3 billion. (Branson Pledges Billions to Fight Global Warming, by Andrew C. Revkin, NY Times, 9/21/06), and today President Clinton announced a $1 billion renewable energy investment fund (Clinton debuts $1B renewable-energy fund, by Nahal Toosi, Associated Press, 9/22/06). You know the old saying: a billion here and a billion there and soon you start talking about real money. Nothing can substitute for good government policies, but these are big sums and if they're used well, they will make a difference.