I understand the global implications of energy usage. But being from an old factory town I wonder if on a local scale now that the factories are all gone there is less energy consumption. I see the energy companies changing to all of the smart grid tech and I wonder if there would ever be a need to change the grid to support more power. Seems like everyone is into less power consumption, but if you do weld or have a garden its tough to keep power bills low. thats my two cents.