Gas & water meter reading is mostly one-way, although we are getting into remote gas & water cut-offs now. Electric meters are two way because of two fundamental truths about power-grid electricity: 1) it's too expensive to store it, so it has to be used as its generated, and 2) expensive "load fill" generators have to be started up at peak times. If utilities can avoid the latter by peak shaving (e.g. turning off HVAC for people who aren't home anyway), they can live with the former.
But, public policy and marketing aren't my strong points, so I shouldn't say anything about it. Right, La Lydia?
Pretty much. And I don’t know anything about telemetry, nor did I mention it. How long do you think it would take a government run by, say, Obama and Eric Holder and Nancy Pelosi, to start using this kind of control over people’s lives in a punitive way, as opposed to or in addition to using it in a way to conserve power?