The New York Times reported yesterday that Whirlpool, in effort to do their part in this new green era, has announced that it will produce one million smart clothes dryers for sale in 2011 and make all their dryers smart grid compatible in six years.

“The company’s Smart Energy dryers will respond to peak-energy prices by lowering power consumption, saving money for homeowners and easing stress on the electric grid, Whirlpool said as it announced the initiative yesterday. For people who pay variable prices for electricity, the dryers could save an average of $20 to $40 a year, the company said.”

I read some reader comments  to a Wall Street Journal article on the same topic that decried this movement toward energy-consciousness as “Big Brother” governmental control. To those people I simply have to point out the consequences of our energy hogging: New York 2003 Summer Blackout and the ongoing California electricity crisis. If we don’t “smart”en up our home appliances, then we risk more summers of blackness and leaving the next generation with the inconvenient truth of a planet without the energy to sustain itself.