In order to cope with these distortions (which the WTO has made no attempt to correct), governments need to take a range of aggressive steps—from price guarantees to straight subsidies—so that green energy has a fair shot at competing. We know from experience that this works: Denmark has among the most successful renewable energy programs in the world, with 40 percent of its electricity coming from renewables, mostly wind. But it’s significant that the program was rolled out in the 1980s, before the free trade era began, when there was no one to argue with the Danish government’s generous
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