For freedom from Big Oil, California looks to Denmark

After the 1973 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil embargo, the Danes — 99 percent dependent on imported energy at the time — set out to free themselves from foreign oil.

Today the country is the only exporter of energy in Europe, producing 55 percent more power than it needs. Renewable fuels — wind, solar, waste — generates 15 percent of that, and the country is almost completely energy independent.

Of course, 85 percent of Denmarks power still comes from oil and natural gas. But the trend is steadily — if slowly — moving away from that.

Inside Bay Area