The Obama administration handed out $3.4 billion in grants the other day to begin building the smart grid - smart meters, smart transformers, smart substations, and smart what-not.

The money will buy lots of smart equipment. What it won't do is buy smart behavior. And there lies one of the great unknowns about the big energy transformation facing America.

Will all that great equipment be put to optimal use - squeezing waste out of our energy production and consumption patterns, integrating cleaner technologies into the electric grid, and banishing oil's shadow over our economy and our international relations? Or will cussed, mercurial human behavior drive our energy economy into unexpected directions?

Let's see how these unknowns might play out. One of the ideas behind the smart grid is that if utilities adopt variable electricity pricing for end-use customers and those customers can see current electricity prices on home data screens tied to their smart meters, they will have the information they need to optimize their demand patterns - say, running the dishwasher late at night when demand is down and prices are lower, rather than during morning or early evening hours, when loads are high and electricity prices reflect higher demand. One benefit of shifting demand to off-peak periods would be reduced need for "peaker" power plants, typically gas-fired combustion turbines.

Would consumers respond to clear price signals and shift their demand patterns in optimal ways? There is some evidence that they would, but much will depend on whether consumers incorporate electricity price monitoring into their daily routines. Some may want to actively manage their electricity use, some may not want to be bothered. Today, no one knows precisely how consumers will respond to the technology.

Take another example - plug-in hybrid-electric cars that use both batteries and internal combustion engines for propulsion. General Motors plans to market the Chevrolet Volt sometime next year. Uber-environmentalist Denis Hayes says the Volt is the best idea that Detroit has had in decades.

The thinking behind a car like the Volt is that many people don't need to drive more than 30 or so miles per day for commuting, errands, and socializing.

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Think of wilderness, and common images that come to mind are towering, ice-shrouded mountains, skyscraper forests, or spectacular waterfalls.

Not many think of grasslands. More should. Our species came of age when our ancestors in the deep past came down from the trees, stood up on the grasslands, and looked afar to take the measure of their world. Grasslands have supported us in many ways ever since.

Many of the wild grasslands that once spread across the continent's midlands are gone, swept away by ideas about development and manifest destiny. Still, there are a few grasslands that people of the plains or westward-ho travelers from yesteryear would recognize. There's a strong case for adding some to the National Wilderness Preservation System, the lands and waters that, in outbreaks of wisdom, we set aside as places where we can clear our minds and let nature take its course.

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It didn't take long before all-or-nothing ideologues on the left and on the right started lobbing rhetorical bombs at Senators John Kerry and Lindsey Graham for daring to suggest in their joint New York Times op-ed that lawmakers from both parties should work together to pass climate and energy legislation.

On the left, Kerry has been pilloried for suggesting that nuclear power and carbon-sequestered coal ought to have a seat at the table in planning a low-carbon energy system for a $14 trillion economy with an immense energy appetite. Kerry's critics on the left demand a simon-pure climate bill that force-marches the U.S. to an economy that runs entirely on renewable energy.

A dramatic boost in renewable energy is necessary, but we won't get there with a my-way-or-the-highway legislative strategy. In the unyielding world inhabited by what Seattle political journalist Joel Connelly calls the "everybody-is-a-sellout-but-us" wing of the political left, however, simon-pure is the only acceptable outcome. If that wing succeeds in blocking any legislation that is not to its liking, there will be no carbon cap, no price on greenhouse gas emissions, and another goose egg for the U.S. in Copenhagen.

Which Kerry knows. There is much else on Kerry's mind. Kerry knows that nuclear energy is expensive and that carbon sequestration on the huge scale necessary to take a significant bite out of emissions is not a sure thing. Kerry also knows, however, that keeping the climate system out of the red zone means that no reasonable option can be left off the table. Knowing all that, Kerry also can count to 60, the Babylonian magic number that must be achieved in the Senate to pass anything controversial in the hyper-partisan world of today's D.C. ...

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Memo to Tom Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Dear Tom:

Pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit down, and let's have a serious talk about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and climate change.

First, we have something in common. I've served on a chamber of commerce board of directors. I can see the world the way that hard-working business people trying to make a living see the world. When they get upset at obtuse government actions, they often have a valid case. So, it's OK to speak up forcefully when you think the government needs to make a course correction that takes business needs more carefully into account. However, there's a right way to defend your interests and a wrong way.

I'll tell you a story. The big issue for the local chamber of commerce on which I served was a main street improvement project in the central business district. The chamber hasn't forgotten the cack-handed way that the city handled the project's first phase. City officials didn't work proactively with the businesses most affected by the project and dismissed suggestions for design changes. Instead, the city bulled ahead, with the unfortunate result that many merchants lost their shirts. ...

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As the Senate slouches towards debating a climate bill, there's a mano-a-mano scrap among utilities over distribution of carbon emissions allowances. Enviros ought to pay attention because the outcome of the battle could determine whether low-carbon or high-carbon energy sources get the upper hand under whatever climate bill staggers out of Congress.

It's a battle between low-carb utilities and high-carb utilities. The low-carbs complain that the high-carbs want "cash for clunkers" to keep their dirty old coal plants operating. The high-carbs say the low-carbs are trying to game the allowances market to enrich themselves.

Here's the lowdown behind the fightin' words: The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) legislation that the House passed June 26 hands over 30 percent of emissions allowances to electric utilities between 2012 and 2026, when auctioning would start to phase in. The bill contains a 50-50 formula determining how allowances would be handed over to utilities. Half the allowances would be distributed on the basis of kilowatt-hour sales. The other half would be tied to utilities' past carbon emissions. The 50-50 arrangement was the deal that Henry Waxman negotiated with the Edison Electric Institute - the big tuna of utility lobbyists on the Hill....

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The coal crowd is finding out about the old political adage that there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests.

Alstom, a French manufacturer that builds equipment for utilities, has followed Duke Energy out of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a band of coal production companies, coal-hauling railroads, and coal-burning utilities throwing up obstacles to climate legislation.

ACCCE is snarled in a messy affair involving forged letters against climate legislation that its DC lobbying firm sent to members of Congress.

No one should want to associate with an outfit carrying dirty socks like that in its baggage, but Duke has bigger fish to fry than ...

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After the piñata is whacked open, there is a rush for the spilled candy. The big kids – party leaders, transportation committee chairmen, and appropriations barons – scoop up the biggest and juiciest chews, gumballs, and lollipops. The leavings are left for the little kids, who grab what they can.

During the scrum, little if any consideration is given to the consequences of consuming so many sweets. If fleeting thoughts of cavities, root canals, and staggering dental bills emerge, they are swiftly stomped back into the neurological ether.

A bipartisan group of DC worthies has published a set of recommendations for reforming transportation funding. It is based on the premise that there must be a better way to allocate transportation dollars than for congressmen and entrenched interests to gorge themselves on federal sugar.

The better way that the report lays out is setting national goals and then measuring for results. Any 8-year-old facing a math test could figure that out. ...

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Geo-engineering is the weird uncle in the climate change policy family. Few in the environmental community are comfortable discussing the topic.

For good reason. It's easy to foresee wishy-washy politicians embracing technological hubris as an excuse for avoiding unpopular decisions to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Geo-engineering is not a panacea. We can't say at this point that geo-engineering projects would be practical or affordable.

We haven't begun to resolve ethical, legal, or institutional issues. Such as who gets to be in charge of tinkering with the atmosphere, who funds the work, and who pays for damages in case of screw-ups.

Most importantly, we're not close to knowing enough to be assured that geo-engineering wouldn't set off dreadful unintended consequences.

At the risk of enabling do-nothing congressmen, however ...

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John Podesta, head of the Anti-Heritage Foundation, also known as the Center for American Progress, had many nice things to say about natural gas at Harry Reid's energy bash in Las Vegas the other day.

So did Harry Reid himself, who announced that he's now a congregant at T. Boone Pickens' church of natural gas.

Even Al Gore, the scourge of all things carbon, allowed that natural gas is welcome in his world.

Meanwhile, there's an affray brewing among the the fossil fuel band of brothers. The gas guys are differentiating themselves in the market. They're taking out ads that, in so many words, say that coal is an environmental problem. Oil is a geopolitical problem. Gas helps solve both. It's clean and 100 percent American. So there.

What gives? A basic rule of politics is that ...

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My first car was not a "clunker." That would be too dignified a description.

It was a 1957 Volkswagen bug. I hated that car.

There was the incident when its accelerator cable broke in the middle of the Mojave Desert. I had to rig up a string from the rear-mounted engine and pull it through the driver's window in order to operate the throttle. Not fun on a brittle high desert night. Did I mention that the car lacked a heater?

Then, there was the time I flipped the switch to turn off the headlights. The headlights stayed on. I disconnected the wiring connecting the switch to the headlights. The headlights stayed on. And drained the battery. Which was under the rear seat, leaked acid, and cut an L-shaped hole in the floorboard.

If I turned in that car in the "cash for clunkers" deal, I would return the $4,500 payoff to the dealer in gratitude for taking the deathtrap off my hands.

Thankfully, the '57 bug is long gone. Back to the present. Is "cash for clunkers" a good deal for the environment? The impact seems marginal. It's good to see people turning in gas hogs and replacing them with gas sippers. Likely, however, they would have bought new cars anyway once the economy improves and credit loosens up. The incentive brought forward the transactions. ...

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At the back of the current issue of Smithsonian magazine, behind the feature about Alabama's scenic Cahaba River and the profile of bodybuilder Charles Atlas, there's a history of the wonky idea that has entered the lexicon as "cap-and-trade."

As the article recounts, back in 1988, acid rain was the environmental topic of the hour. Environmental Defense's Fred Krupp brought cap-and-trade to the attention of C. Boyden Gray, the Reagan administration lawyer headed for a job as White House counsel for the incoming presidency of George H.W. Bush.

Krupp and Gray liked the idea. Few others did at the time. Indignant enviros called it a license to pollute. EPA bureaucrats didn't think it would work. Congressmen were skeptical. Utilities thought that emissions allowances would cost too much. Out on the fringes, there were batty ideologues – still around, by the way – who refused to let facts get in the way of conspiracy theorizing about a supposed acid rain hoax....

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There you go again, George Will.

In his July 23 commentary, Will took another whack at flogging the evidence-challenged argument that the long-term rise in global average temperatures somehow stopped in 1998.

To substantiate his assertion about the supposed end of global warming, Will quoted social critic Mark Steyn, who is as unqualified to pronounce on climate science as a cantaloupe but lacks a cantaloupe's good sense to keep quiet about it.

Will is supposed to be a conservative, but it's more accurate to call him an ideologue, more comfortable in the candyland of spin and slogans than in the gritty neighborhood of reality. As was pointed out by a character in Mars Life, Ben Bova's newest science fiction novel: "Science, my friend, is the difference between what you think ought to be and what actually is."

But what of the argument in Will's screed that anything the U.S. does to cut carbon emissions would be overwhelmed by economic growth in China, India, and other developing countries? That argument merits some attention. ...

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