Not only that, Randal, but it might also convince people not to idle their conventional cars if they could plug in a small ceramic heater or even just the block heater on their cars. Obviously there is electricity in those meters, as the displays light up, and the electronics work. A simple retrofit could easily run an electrical outlet, too!

I know on some of those -30 days we have coming, if I could plug my vehicle's block heater in, I'd feel better about it!

DJ

Public transit needs to be much more prevalent. Ontario is facing a serious electricity supply problem so I'm not sure about increasing reliance on electricity.

Very true, Ontario does seem to be looking into the working end of an energy shotgun... But what does seem apparent is that liquid fuels will become more costly, but most renewable energy systems (wind, hydro, geothermal) output electricity, not liquid fuel. A system that can use the electricity "as is" might be more prevalent. We might see electric street cars again. I'm led to believe by some American friends that electric drives are starting to replace diesel train engines in some parts of the US.

Electric cars might be a bit better than gasoline cars, depending on how their electricity is generated. Currently in Ontario, electric cars are not much better than conventinal ones. Downtown what we want to encoutage is public transportation, not cars, electric or otherwise.