We'll be the last manufacturer of ... buggy whips 35mm film VHS tapes incandescent light bulbs Being the last one standing in this case might be more like being the last of your species... Being the last to die is not so much a "win"

A $60 light bulb ... um no thanks A well cared for LED "can" last a long time. I'll be willing to bet that the rest of the power electronics will not last as long. Especially based on the short life I have seen out of CFL's and yes even the "good" ones by GE Osram/Sylvania when you use electrolytic capacitors in the ballast you can only expect so much. Buy the GE bulbs on sale for $1 and know they will not last anywhere near the 8 years the package claims but at that price ... who cares? The difference in energy usage between the LED and a CFL is 1/2 a watt so it would take 80 years to overcome the $59 price difference. When the CFL dies in 2 years look at the price & performance of LED bulbs again.... chances are the performance is only going to go up and the price come down. Are you really going to keep running that LED bulb you bought today if N years from now you can get one twice as bright for the power consumed? So there really isn't much advantage to being an early adopter. Even if you are using incandescent bulbs the cost of lighting your home probably pales in comparison to your heating and air conditioning costs. $60 spent on attic insulation will likely give you bigger returns than one light bulb. Ten bulbs would be $600 ... money that would be better spent on a desuperheater for your ac/heat pump make your ac more efficient and get hot water as an added bonus. LED bulbs are not "bad" it is just that there are other things that give you so much more return on your investment at present prices. So anyway good job Phillips I won't be buying your bulb at current prices but there are plenty of people who stink at math that will.

Gasoline being expensive is no fun, but there are parts of the world where gasoline is expensive now ... and life goes on. Now if we see a shortage of gasoline where you can't get it at any price that is even more painful ... But worse yet than that would be a shortage of diesel ... at that point you don't have to worry about going to work you'll be too busy trying not to starve/freeze to death. See your food is transported to the store by trucks that burn ... Diesel, and it may have been moved by rail by trains that burn ... diesel The food was harvested and planted and transported by combines, tractors, and trucks that burn ... umm diesel Ohh what's that you have an electric car? Sorry the power plants burn coal that is delivered by trains that burn diesel that was mined by trucks burning diesel. So if there is no diesel there is no food and no stable electric grid. So while it is nice to talk about public transportation .... the light rail does not deliver food to the grocery store, or deliver coal to the power plant. If you are worried about gasoline prices don't buy an electric car... consider planing a garden, because while biking to work would be annoying being able to eat is a higher priority.

Umm 1 - 2 ? You don't move the poo very far you build a small power plant where the cows are ... it is called a methane digester. An engine burns the methane and produces electricity and heat which is used to keep the input material at the right temp to keep the microbes that produce the methane happy. Excess heat can be used to heep the ranchers house warm. After being processed the spent "fuel" is used as fertelizer. More power can be produced if you put the cows on treadmills. http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/19/cows-on-treadmills-could-produce-six-percent-of-the-worlds-power/ All this reminds me of mad max ... who rules bater town? Master blaster!

100% +

You have a source of wast heat if it is a high enough temperature... you can either use it to heat your home directly or can use it to run a heat pump and still have wast heat (at a lower temp) that can be used to heat your home too.

You can use the same waste heat to run the heat pump in the summer for air conditioning.

It is not just a question of money I can't get cable or sat at any price. I live in an area "serviced" by comcast but I can't get cable. When they came out to set up the cable and internet they said the signal at the house and at the pole was too low. They left never to be seen again. We gave up and got DSL. My next door neighbor has comcast but he says it works so poorly he has written letters to regional managers etc to no avail. The fact is cable tv is not considered a public utility so they have no requirement to sell their service to you or meet minimum quality standards. In the case of me and my neighbor comcast knows that it is not worth them spending the money to maintain / repair their stuff. Who cares if they loose 2 customers ... it is not like we have any other choice anyway. No fios, and too many trees and on the wrong side of the hill for sat.

The major expense of operating an electric vehicle is not the cost of the electricity. Yes, the cost of electricity is less than the cost of gasoline but that is only part of the story. Say an hypothetical electric car uses 250 watt hrs per mile. Say that electricity is 16 cents per kWh. 4 cents per mile of electricity cost. From the article let us assume this car requires $2000 worth of batteries every year. Also assume that it can drive 15,000 miles each year. That is 13 cents per mile battery cost. At $4 per gallon and 20 mpg you are at 20 cents per mile vs 17 for the electric. So while saving $450 per year + the cost of oil changes etc would be nice it hardly seems worth the inconvenience of being stuck with a vehicle that has a limited range and a long recharge time.