Summit of environmental success.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (The Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro was hardly a Woodstock of the '90s. Instead of music there was rancor. Instead of unity there were selfish debates. Developed nations, including the United States, peppered discussions with warnings they would not forsake their lifestyles or economies. Developing nations pleaded for the help of more industrialized nations to be able to achieve economic progress without further environmental degradation.

The world sighed as the emotional debates at the summit -- struggling with an impossible choice between a strong economy and a clean environment -- became the sad legacy of the first mass meeting in more than 20 years to address how to tend an ailing Mother Earth.

As the chairman and chief executive officer of Southern California Gas Co., the nation's largest natural gas distributor, and as one who cares deeply about his community, I find this forced choice a highly questionable proposition that serves no one and hurts everyone.

For my company, my family and my neighbors, I want a strong economy and a clean, healthy environment. So, too, I believe, does the American public.

At The Gas Co., we conduct annual surveys to assess the opinions of our 4.6 million customers. Year after year, they tell us that environmental issues are right at the top of their list, and they are willing to pay a little more to achieve a cleaner environment. National opinion polls have turned up similar findings.

Is it wishful thinking to have both a strong economy and a clean environment? I don't think so. As the chairman of the American Gas Association, I know that it is not only desirable but possible.

The gas association released a major study on April 30 that should serve as a policy model because it outlines a way to counteract global warming, one of our most pressing environmental problems, while creating more jobs to bolster the American economy.

The study -- "An Alternative Energy Future" -- was undertaken by the Alliance to Save Energy, the gas association and the Solar Energy Industries Association. It was reviewed by the Center for Global Climate Change at the University of Maryland, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the Global Change Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Worldwatch Institute.

The study calls for the rapid deployment of new technologies resulting in a stabilization of total energy consumption over the next 20 years, and a corresponding shift away from high-carbon fuels to natural gas and renewable energies and greater energy efficiency. This transition would result in a 12 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 to 2010, lower consumer energy bills and an improved U.S. balance of trade.

The Gas Co. supports this approach and the adoption of a U.S. policy to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000. We believe greater use of natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, must be the cornerstone of America's transition to clean energy, moving us away from high-carbon coal and imported oil.

We are already beginning to see the dramatic benefits of this transition in California. Increased use of natural gas to power electric generators and by large commercial and industrial users, who formerly relied on fuel oil, has reduced the state's carbon dioxide emissions to 27 percent below the national average.

With the expanded use of natural gas vehicles, additional reductions are possible. In fact, the Sierra Club cites the automobile as the single largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States. Natural gas vehicles can cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent compared to conventionally fueled vehicles.

Natural gas, obviously, is not the perfect answer. As a fossil fuel, natural gas emits some carbon dioxide when burned. But breakthrough technologies are adding handsomely to the attractiveness of natural gas as the fuel of choice to improve the environment.

In about a month, The Gas Co. will unveil its second commercially operating fuel cell, a technology that generates electricity with virtually no pollution. As the fuel source, natural gas is not burned, but part of an electrochemical reaction that is safe, reliable, non-polluting and quiet. Over the next two years, The Gas Co. will install at least eight more of these units.

Natural gas cooling also is an efficient foot soldier in the battle against global warming. Gas cooling can eliminate harmful chlorofluorocarbons -- another greenhouse gas -- by using water as a refrigerant instead of chlorofluorocarbons.

Commercialization of these beneficial natural gas technologies could be speeded by a commitment from the federal Department of Energy to allocate $2.5 billion over the next 10 years to support natural gas research and development.

Greater reliance on natural gas, support for research and development of clean natural gas technologies and continued emphasis on renewable energy and conservation constitute a winning formula for achieving the stabilization of carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2000.

But what is the federal government's role and what would be the impact of this solution on the American economy?

First, in addition to reallocating research and development funds to promote promising new technologies, the federal government can set a tone of leadership for the world to see by removing barriers that prevent natural market forces from working properly. A market-based system is workable and preferable to "command and control" regulation.

One such barrier is federal and state subsidization of energy sources, such as coal, that contribute adversely to the environment. Reducing or eliminating these subsidies and allowing these energy sources to be replaced by natural gas and renewable energy would vastly improve the environment.

As far as the impact on the economy, moving away from carbon-intensive industries and imported oil, and increasing reliance on natural gas, conservation and renewable energy would actually create more jobs in the total energy sector. The Alternative Energy Future study projects a net increase of more than 82,000 jobs in the energy sector in the year 2000, with the rate of job growth to accelerate by 2010.

The world's environmental future will not be determined by one conference, but by what follows. Much optimism and hope are displayed in the Earth Summit's creating of a U.N. Sustainable Development Commission, which is designed to use public criticism and pressure to hold governments accountable for the agreements reached in Rio. In the United States, the natural gas industry stands ready to work with the administration to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions.

Perhaps it will not be a loss to future generations that the Rio Summit failed to generate the folklore of Woodstock. Far better than folklore would be the creation of a new attitude -- one that does not ask for a draconian choice between a strong economy and a clean environment, but one that insists a strong economy can be built on a clean environment. By taking the lessons of Rio, we can and should set our sights on building bridges through creative coalitions. Divergent short-term views, yes, but a united long-term goal: environmental and economic progress for all.

Richard D. Farman is chairman and chief executive officer of Southern California Gas Co.