>>
> Out here in the west ... The land of the coal fired power plants where 
> even
> the hoover dam doesn�t put out enough hydro.
>

I picked up an August 2004 Fortune in the Dr.'s office this summer and 
read an interesting article about weaning our nation from oil. The 
author stated that the argument that more efficient electric motors 
would raise the cost of home appliances was counter-illustrated by an 
improvement made to refrigerator motors in the 1970s. Refrigerators, he 
went on to say (hope I remember this accurately) cost less now in real 
dollars than they did then, not to mention adjusted dollars, and that 
the savings in electricity from that improvement was equal to the 
annual output of the hoover dam.

Just thought you'd like to know!

Jim