I live in an area that was buried under 4-6 feet of snow over night back in December. The city I live in borrowed special trucks equipped with a flame device from the City of Toronto to melt snow in the down town area instead of trying to load it on to trucks with Loaders and haul it out and dump it some where. So, ya it's perfectly reasonable...

Look at it this way...It starts with patented genetic software, which leads to some sort of discovery that could cure some disease. Now the researcher that made the genetic discovery patents the actual base pair code (genetic code). Now they have the ability to charge what ever they want for the "treatment". That is a terrifying thought. This is a real Pandora's Box