[wwweston]

> Energy is not a transportable, fungible quantity the way dollars are.

You mean energy and dollars aren't both transmitted up/down wires or moved around with mass that represents stored potential?

> It is entirely possible that the device one buys for $1000 would require more that $1000 of energy to make

This.... doesn't sound like a business model that will last long. Can you give a concrete example?

[jhayward]

Electrical power does not cross oceans. Dollars do. A factory in China running on a local coal plant's energy does not pay the same cost that a factory in Texas would pay.