By Doug Peeples

SGN News Editor

One byproduct of smart grid initiatives and technologies is the huge quantity of reports they generate. We try to cherry pick those that you, our readers, will be most interested in and give you a taste of what they're about. We hope our efforts make it easier for you to choose which ones to take a closer look at.

While it's fun to speculate what the homes of the future would be like, and a lot of companies are doing their best to make them a reality, the results of the survey were almost evenly split. 51% said they agreed with the statement, while 46% said those wonderful homes of the future would still be a "marketing mirage" by 2020. The respondents had more to say about the costs and changes needed to make such a blending of technologies work and how customers would respond to something new and unfamiliar.

Energy efficiency is another topic that has generated a lot of big buzz over the past several years. A new paper by Brookings senior fellow Ted Gayer and Vanderbilt University professor W. Kip Viscusi, Overriding Consumer Preferences With Energy Regulations, outlines their review of some of the federal government's recent energy efficiency standards for vehicles and appliances. They found that regulations implemented by DOE, the Department of Transportation and EPA, appear to assume that consumers and firms are "irrationally harming themselves" by not valuing energy efficiency ahead of other considerations. They warn that using those assumptions as the basis of regulatory analysis could justify future regulations that govern all choices consumers and firms make.

They ask "How can it be that consumers are leaving billions of potential economic gains on the table by not buying the most energy efficient cars, clothes dryers, air conditioners and light bulbs? Moreover, how can it also be the case that firms seeking to earn profits are likewise ignoring highly attractive opportunities to save money?"