We need a power shift

With all the talk about the upcoming hydrogen economy, a picture is being painted that's so rosy, all our environmental problems will apparently be solved. But the truth is that while running hydrogen fuel cell cars will emit nothing but water vapour out the exhaust, something's got to be making all that hydrogen. The same is true about all-electric vehicles. You just plug your car in. Sure - but where's all that extra electricity going to come from? For now, that something is fossil fuels. So all we're really planning to do is move the emissions from our tailpipes to bigger and more numerous power plants. And what do you think that will do to the price of electricity?

Before we are ready as an economy to move into the hydrogen or all-electric age, we need a fundamental shift in the balance of power. Literally. Right now, you can only buy your power from the utility company. Which is wasteful, because they spend just as much getting the electricity from the source to your house. The key is in local production. Local windmills, solar and natural gas mini-plants at the neighbourhood level. You form little power co-ops and any power left over - you sell back to the grid. Right now the utility companies control the supply vs. demand equation. Prices will never drop because they are smart not to let supply outpace demand. The same can be said for gasoline. But once we have the ability to produce our own power, we have much more influence on the market. Just think how much cheaper filling up your electric car would be if you were getting the juice from mother nature...........