Perhaps the tall pole in energy consumption is going to be China, but we've been the tall pole for years, both per capita AND summed over the whole country. It is to be normal and to be expected that in any situation where rationing or controls are being contemplated, both per capita consumption and emissions must be taken into consideration.

The lifeboats with the most people should get more drinking water, all else being equal, but no one else has any right to wash their hair with water from my boat. China should get a larger final share of the energy/emissions than anyone else, in proportion to their population. On the other hand, if China's per capita consumption and emissions exceed everyone else's then they haven't got a leg to stand on and need to clean up their act.

Of course, all else is not equal. The Chinese will argue we were major polluters and consumers for years and squandered our resources and half the world's and are now hypocritically denying them the right to build themselves up industrially after we have achieved full development. They will also argue that they are rapidly becoming the world's leading industrial and manufacturing power, they make stuff, while most of the the USA and Europe's power goes into SUVs and consumer electronics.

But we can also answer that they are using their alleged third world status to gain an unfair trade and regulatory advantage over the rest of the world, and plan to finance their economic growth by poisoning the planet, and are expecting the rest of the world to subsidize them while they do it. Seeing their side of the question doesn't need we have to give away the farm. That's why they are called negotiations.

Personally, I'm very leery of international agreements like Kyoto. And I do agree we should be very suspicious of these deals, and of all the hand-wringing and propaganda that surrounds them. But we'd better get used to it, because we don't seem to be very inclined to conserve, and the only other alternatives are economic collapse or war.

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For the record, I'm pro-nuke (with reservations) but opposed to drilling in the US or offshore. The oil companies will just sell any new oil they find here overseas.