Thank you, Mr. Chair, and let me extend my appreciation to our guests for joining us electronically.
My first question will be to Dr. Meier. It is sort of about the law of unintended consequences.
You've noted that you're an expert on energy efficiency. There's the technological side of it. We all want cars that will run on one gallon of gas forever. We all want fridges, TVs, computers, iPods, you name it--whatever we have in our houses--to run on almost no electricity. But it has been noted that as things get more efficient, and people can have a fridge that's more efficient, all of a sudden you don't need just one fridge. It's every guy's dream: you have one fridge upstairs and the beer fridge in the basement, and lo and behold, you get an energy efficient 42-inch-screen plasma TV. Down in California, Monday night football becomes that much better. Up here, Saturday night hockey becomes that much better.
As we get more energy efficient, people have tended to put more and more appliances in their households. There was a law passed to make more water-efficient toilets--low-flush toilets. People then began to flush twice, or there was a bit of cross-border smuggling in some areas where they had them or didn't. So let me ask this question: As we get more efficient, how do you deal with the law of unintended consequences wherein this efficiency then creates more demand for more energy, and you're back using the same amount? I'm curious as to your comments on that.