I think sometimes as we focus on alternative energy, we forget that in our daily lives, we may be inhibiting our country's move in that direction. I am talking about our day to day reliance on the energy we use from coal, oil and other fossil fuels. The utilities have a point that people must be willing to conserve to ease the constant demand on fossil fuels. After all, if there is less demand on these resources, perhaps the utilities will have more opportunity to focus on exploring alternative sources. Many people, including sometimes me, forget that conservation involves everyone during their part to minimize energy use when possible. I started implementing this philosophy in small ways, like not using any lights in the house during the day and just raising the blinds to let natural light in. I also turn all appliances and electronic devices off when not in use and try to unplug as many as possible (since many devices such as televisions, use a lot of power even when in the off mode when they are plugged in). I try not to run the dishwasher until it is full. I also keep the temperature in the summer in the house at 78 degrees, to ease the demand on air conditioning. These are certainly small steps and I'm sure I could and should do a lot more. Yet, at least it's a start. If we, as consumers, refuse to conserve, recycle, reuse, etc., then we are basically telling our utilities to keep exhausting what energy sources are currently available, such as coal and oil. If we ease our demand a bit, we will be in more of a position to push our utilities to shift to alternative energy sources and move alternative sources out of the experimental stage. Menawhile, if we continue with the mentality of using everything whenever we feel like it, we may not ever be able to convert to primarily alternative energy and we may be too late to avert the grim consequences of global warming.