The premiere is Saturday in Charleston, W.Va. Can't wait till it comes to where I am.

I'm becoming a fan of Home Energy magazine, although so far, not enough that I'm willing to pay for it. The couple times I've seen it, it was offered for free at trade shows.

Several times while I was reading the current issue, I thought, "this is good, I should share this," so here I am.

A presentation from Friday night that stood out for me was by Kevin Brokish, about adaptive load-leveling, which is akin to what the black box will do on the smart grid, but within that context, quite different.

For the smart grid, the box will allow communications between customer and grid, allowing, among others things, customers to set the rates they are willing to pay for the functions of each (i.e., run the dryer only overnight, when electric prices are at their lowest).

I spent part of today at the MIT Energy Conference, but before I get to any of that, I want to post on the three dozen hardy souls who turned out to protest at the Dominion power plant in Salem a week ago. I started to say "report on," but I don't have much more than photos to share...

OK, so I'm practically a media whore for the Alliance for Climate Protection, but I can't imagine being someone's bitch in service of a better cause. The latest clip they're circulating, and that I'm sharing below, is the incredible — that's "incredible," as in "not credible" —  comment from King Coal mouthpiece Joe Lucas ... 

A large-scale act of civil disobedience is planned for Monday in Washington, at the site of the coal-fired plant that powers Capitol Hill, and like you, I'm not going to get there.

But my friend Maggie Zhou of the Secure Green Future movement tells me there will be protests at three Mass. coal-fired plants on Sunday, the day before.

The previous post expressed pleasure at the latest anti-clean-coal ad released by the Alliance for Climate Protection, and semi-giggled over the prospect of "my" side having the cash to match an evil-industry group's ability to puts its view before a slack-jawed television nation.

This one will semi-giggle about "my" side having a firm-enough foothold in the zeitgeist that entertainment television can find profit in creating the same sort of energy-titan spoofs that the "Reality" ads are doing.

The Alliance for Climate Protection is out with another Reality ad about the utter dishonesty perpetrated by the coal industry every time it promotes the term "clean coal." This one has the added attraction of having been directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, creators of some of the funniest, darkest, most engrossing films ever (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, etc.).

Reuters reports...

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday put plans for seven coal-fired plants on hold and called on the state to reduce use of fossil fuels for generating electricity to 45 percent by 2020.

Granholm, a Democrat, announced the cleaner-energy efforts during her state of the state address on Tuesday night.

According to businessgreen.com, the Maltese national utility has signed IBM to replace a quarter-million analog meters with electronic meters as part of a $100 million deal. Work will also engage advanced IT applications that will allow the utility to monitor demand more accurately and allow consumers to set the prices they're willing to pay for various household functions.