10 July 2008

The Electric Company loves you and loves the environment


That's the basic take-away I personally got from a lunch and panel discussion I just went to at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel today here in Manhattan. Note the equal sign rather than a hyphen in "Waldorf=Astoria" -- because it's the Waldorf=Astoria.

Officials from utility companies (including the CEO of Con Ed) were on hand to talk about energy fairs, education programs, CFL bulb give-aways, and other ways they are seeking to establish their green cred. There was discussion of increasing demand for energy, and how utilities are planning to cope with that -- in a nutshell, with more renewable energy sources, new nuclear plants, and through new "smart grid" systems that give feedback to customers and thus encourage better energy use.

The session was sponsored by the Edison Electric Institute, an association of electric companies. And in the interest of full disclosure, there was a nice lunch as well.

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