The Economist recently had an article on the inconsistency between Norway’s domestic green advocacy and its massive export of oil.

Norway is the world’s third-biggest exporter of gas and the fourth for oil. Thus the nation contributes greatly to global warming through its gas and oil extraction and sale.

But what is ironic is that while Norway’s economic engine depends on nations buying its dirty energy, the nation itself is trying to make its own people less dependent on oil and gas for power uses. The government is reluctant to build more roads so that people will use public transport more, its imposes high gas taxes and has one of the most strictest green building codes.

Norway is ethical in other ways too. For instance, through its sovereign wealth fund that invests only in firms that have passed a test on their environmental and humanitarian grounds. The fund, for example, does not invest in Wal-Mart because the American retailer is hostile to unions.

So while Norway encourages its own people to conserve energy so as to lessen the future impact of global warming and its fund stays away from firms that do harm to the environment, the left-of-center government is consistently working to see that more and more people stay addicted to the very stuff that the government is trying to ween its people off. The government has just given state oil companies new rights to drill for oil in previously off-limits regions and the prime minister himself flew to England at the opening of a Norway-company gas pipe.

Norway’s inconsistency between its green advocacy and its actions could even make the Gulf Stream-flying Al Gore blush.