It is true that America is slowly gravitating toward environmental consciousness, but the country still has a long, long way to go in order to break its addiction to oil, and move forward as a progressive “green” country.

Case in point: even though Americans are gradually accepting the idea of hybrid vehicles, “old” Europe continues to outpace the United States by a huge margin when it comes to protecting environmental resources and minimizing the use of gas-hungry vehicles.

The Paris Metro (rapid transit system) is a perfect example of Europe’s progressive thinking on environmental issues. French authorities continue to expand and improve Paris’ public transportation system, recently adding several new Metro lines and introducing the new T3 tram service, a light-weight electric commuter train which currently carries more than 100,000 passengers daily.

Like many major cities in Europe, Paris is phasing out the use of gas-powered buses, and replacing them with expanded electro-tram routes, both above ground and below. And the Parisian Transportation Authority wants to take things even further.

A new project will add 25 new stations to the Metro line, and extend several current tram and subway lines. The project, which is scheduled to begin construction early in 2009, is estimated to cost approximately one billion US dollars, and will connect even the most remote of Parisian suburbs to the Metro system.

Although the price tag for such an ambitious project is sizable, in the end, the rising cost of oil means that it could end up saving billions when compared to the old diesel bus service. Not only that, by replacing oil-burning public transportation vehicles with clean electric trains and trams, Paris is quickly becoming one of the “greenest” major metropolitan areas in the world.

Can you really save money while protecting the environment? Of course you can — and like it or not, the French are leading the way to show us all how.

And Paris isn’t alone in their expansion of clean electric-powered public transportation: London, Oslo, Manchester, Vienna, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Zürich, Nice and Amsterdam all have clean public transportation expansion programs in the works. The European continent as a whole is investing heavily in cleaner, sustainable public transportation, putting them in a much better position during this time of rising fuel costs.

Compared to the progressive subway, tram and light-electric railway expansions in Europe, the United States begins to look like a lumbering dinosaur, hopelessly addicted to those (currently) $120 barrels of oil. The US has begun to embrace hybrid car technology, which is great — but without development and investment in public transportation, the country will remain at the mercy of the oil-producing nations for years to come.

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