If power companies are to be our guides towards a smart grid-based renewable energy future--and I'm not entirely sure that they are--they have to set a good example. That's at least part of the reasoning behind Duke Energy's and Florida Power and Light's announcement yesterday of a $600 million investment to bring more than 10,000 plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles to their fleets in the next 10 years.
As we approach the only night of the year when we can sing “Auld Lang Syne” and pretend to know the meaning of the words, our investments are likely to be high on the list of things about 2008 we’d like to forget. So if zero interest T-bills, free-falling mutual funds, or Madoff’s distressed debt don’t appeal to any of us, what’s going to look better when we do this all again a year from now?
