Thanks for the article about Yukos. It sounds like a complicated plot. I agree that we need to be more self-sufficient. I drive a car that gets 35-40 mpg (Echo) and live in a condo with east/west exposure to limit my heating/cooling consumption. Is it an exaggeration to say that there is an impending energy crisis? We sure can't count on the government to tell us if there were.
Don't know about your part of the country, but electric and gas utilities are on a upward cost spiral each and every year in the Pacific Northwest.