Norway goes green at home, but goes the opposite way abroad

Oslo, Norway

ON an unseasonably warm day in May, Norway's climate minister, Vidar Helgesen, strolled through a vast parking lot for electric cars, counting Teslas. "Two, three, four, five," the minister marvelled. And that was just one aisle.

There are big perks to buying a Tesla - or any electric car - in Norway. The government waives the high taxes it imposes on sales of other cars. It lets electric cars cruise up bus lanes. Toll roads are free. Parking lots like this one offer a free charge, and new charging stations are being built on the nation's highways.