I've had the solar water heater on my roof for years, but I've recently installed photovoltaic panels to offset my electrical usage. Excess electricity is sent back into the grid for my neighbors to use (until they install the panels on their own roofs...) How many homes and buildings could be outfitted for the price of just one new power plant (hydro, nuke, etc.)? And my greenhouse provides space heat for the whole house in the most low-tech way imaginable.

We must accept the necessity of rethinking and retooling our petroleum-based culture and get started now—right now—shedding our dependence on oil. The government should tax fuel consumption to reduce it and use the money for alternative-fuel research (instead of OPEC profits) and start a massive, wartime-like effort to rebuild our rail infrastructure, streamline our shipping industry, retool our power-generation technology and help us to reduce the demand side of the equation through conservation. We're running out of fossil fuels yet this administration wants to keep the coming darkness a big secret. I think it would be in mankind's best interest to avoid a war with China over the last drop of Iranian oil. If they won't lead us into energy independence, we'll just have to get there on our own. If the people lead...

Here comes the sun... and I say... it's all right.