The U.S. military is not just setting standards in the areas of advanced weaponry. It's also leading the renewable energy charge. It's involved in solar, geothermal and wind projects and its stake in the field will continue to grow.

Consider the solar arena: If you thought the biggest solar array in the Americas was in the Southwestern United States, you'd be right. At 140 acres, the site's 70,000 panels produce peak energy of 14 megawatts, or enough energy to supply 14,000 homes.

But what may not be widely known is that the solar site is at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, providing about one-fourth of the base's power, with the capability of selling renewable credits back to NV Energy. The site, completed in late 2007, can produce about 30.1 million kilowatt hours per year.

Throughout history, scandals have been commonplace. This one is estimated to be at least $13 billion and has entrapped individual investors, banks and charities, all of whom placed their trust in a man with "impeccable credentials." Madoff's penalty, 150 years in a federal penitentiary, is meant to be a warning to future hucksters to back off. The sad reality, though, is that such a Ponzi scheme will invariably occur again and again and that investors must do more of the due diligence up front to avoid getting burned.

One of the world's best examples of smart grid technology and applications in action is smack in the middle of the U.S. heartland at Oklahoma Gas & Electric, which has been in business longer than Oklahoma has been a state.

In fact, Oklahoma only attained statehood in 1907. OG&E -- as it is known -- dates back to 1902. And in recent years, a developing smart grid vision has taken root in corporate strategy, expressed clearly and succinctly to the OG&E entities that are now working diligently to make that vision a reality.

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It's more than a milestone. It's a clear message to the American people. By passing a comprehensive energy bill that includes carbon caps out of the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 219 to 212, President Obama has a crossed a threshold never achieved before -- one that sets out to change American energy policy.

For the last several years such a concept has languished in the halls of Congress and often outside the doors of those most in tune with environmental organizations. That's why the president can boast a victory even if the measure were to stall in the U.S. Senate.

Tell Ken Copp that the U.S. electric grid needs to "get smart," and he'll politely set you straight.

Copp, the strategic technical advisor for American Transmission Company (ATC), is but one of an increasingly vocal number of power engineers and transmission and distribution utility owners who beg to differ with the popular opinion that our electric grid is somehow "dumb," or operating "without a brain."

"The way we look at it, the grid's been smart for a while," he said. "It takes some pretty sophisticated tools to monitor, dispatch and control electricity flow."

America is having car troubles. The fall of General Motors and Chrysler is causing domestic manufacturers to re-think their mission and to develop the next generation of transport. The movement now appears to be headed to a greener future and perhaps with those vehicles that run mostly on electricity.

And while the automotive sector plans to introduce its first so-called plug-in vehicles that can charge from any conventional outlet by 2011, those cars will not soon make a dent in the overall market. The central question then becomes whether such cars and trucks will create for themselves a long-term spot within the transport realm or whether they will go by the way of earlier versions of the all-electric vehicle.

If we’re going to avoid climate disaster, we’re going to have start getting a lot more direct. We’re going to have to think about cooling the planet.

The concept is called geoengineering, and in the past few years, it has gone from being dismissed as a fringe idea to the subject of intense debates in the halls of power. Many of us who have been watching this subject closely have gone from being skeptics to advocates. Very reluctant advocates, to be sure, but advocates nonetheless.