Whitehall 48, I agree that we should be careful here re privacy issues. But I also find reason to be optimistic in that we may be able to use technology to squeeze a lot of inefficiency out of out electrical infrastructure (we lose a ton of power due to transmission inefficiencies) and fuel supply. In the US, we are very advantaged to the EU in that virtually all of our fuel (which the exception of a small amount of LNG imported from Trinidad) is US produced. So many forget that 50% of our electricity comes from coal. If we can get real time pricing for power that incents customers to use off peak power (11PM to 7AM) for applications like washers/dryers/pools/plug-in hybrids, we actually would end up using more coal over time as coal plants could run harder in off peak hours than they currently do. Which would preserve our ample natural gas reserves, where technology has opened up some amazing reserve potential here in the shale plays (Barnett, Haynesville, Marcellus, Fayetteville).

Europe on the other hand is in much worse shape, which accounts for their kowtowing to Russia. I was at a conference last week, and it was sickening listening to Gerhard Schroeder apologize for Russia’s behavior. He is bought and paid for.

And who really imports Arab crude? It’s primarily Asia followed by Europe. Most of our imports are Canadian and Latin, although I’m not happy about sending any $ to Hugo.

We have issues here, but I think that we are in much better shape re energy to weather hard times than Europe. Things get real tough real fast when you don’t have power, heat and transportation fuels.