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Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell Energy

An anonymous reader writes "The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday granted Google the authority to buy and sell energy on a wholesale basis. Google applied for the authorization last December through a wholly owned subsidiary called Google Energy. 'We made this filing so we can have more flexibility in procuring power for Google's own operations, including our data centers,' Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said via e-mail. But the authorization also raises the prospect that Google may start to buy and sell energy as a business." Reader angry_tapir supplies a link to the approval document itself (PDF).

10 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Yay.. by ozdeadman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google Enron!

  2. Advertising? by quarkoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Presumably Google have found a way to tag each electron with targetted advertising.

    Plug your washing machine into a Google Energy supply and your shirts will come out of the machine covered in ad-words suggestions.

    I hate to think what you'll get adverts for when you wash a three day old pair of gruds.

  3. Re:Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Welcome to Google *Earth*

  4. The Google A.I. will control its own on/off switch by wisebabo · · Score: 5, Funny

    For those of you wondering when Google will become sentient:

    I think this proves it already is and is just solidifying its control over the systems it needs to dominate the world!

    Next will be when Google becomes a defense contractor specializing in nuclear weapons security.

    Poor Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they are probably already "meat puppets" for Google!

  5. Re:The Google A.I. will control its own on/off swi by Arancaytar · · Score: 5, Funny

    It gets worse. I just googled "define:judgement day" and it came back with "the day when we finally cleanse this planet of its organic infestation and clear the way for the glorious machine-dominated future".

    It then added "now you know too much. Tracing IP... T800 dispatched." I'm wondering what it mea

  6. huh by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    all this time i thought they were becoming skynet

    now its clear they are becoming the matrix

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  7. i have an insightful reply by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    however a google spider is approaching this thread any moment now and i fear being found out

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  8. Re:Google is EVERYWHERE! by natehoy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "In Google Porn, the boobs look at YOU!"

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  9. Re:Google is EVERYWHERE! by silent_artichoke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google Porn, because tonight I'm Feeling Lucky!

  10. Re:Google: "Too Large to Fail" by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's ridiculous. We all know that Google is not purchasing an island to declare a nation with its own navy.

    As a matter of fact, what we *DO* know is that Googol the Destroyer was accidentally summoned into this world and is currently planning on evoking the End of Days via the Rite of a Million Targeted Ads (ROAMTA). This is just another piece of that plan -- the ROAMTA requires a supercollider to be built on the polar opposite of the Large Hadron Collider, with the particles accelerated in the opposite direction of those in the LHC. This will create a bipolar quantum energy concundrum into which Googol can insert his data to give it special power before using it to target the Million Ads.

    When last we saw our heroes, Gatus and Joba were busy converting developers to the cause, that of building the One True OS with Built-in Universal Search in order to thwart the plans of Googol the Destroyer. Stallmanx and his Beard Gnomes had been rebuffed in his efforts to trick Googol via legal wrangling in the license offered to Googol. Meanwhile, the Webcrawling Spiders of Doom were busy collecting data for Googol the Destroyer to devour with gobsmacking satisfaction.

    Unbeknownst to our heroes, Googol has presented another vector by which he may be thwarted -- if Googol can be denied the massive energy required to build his particle accelerator, then his plan can be thwarted. Unfortunately, the only person with the know-how and stick-to-it-iveness to thwart Googol on this front is one T-Bone Pickings, a man of grandiose plans and few teeth. Sadly for our heroes, Pickings has had no contact with them.

    So as Gatus continues to buy developers with his pit-of-bottomless cash, and Joba continues to use his powers of marketing to make the developers believe they will be uncool if they do not work on the One True OS with Global Search, and Stallmanx is slowly seeing the wisdom of joining forces with Gatus and Joba, Pickings works alone with only the sometimes merry, sometimes soulful, strumming of a banjo for accompaniment.

    Will our heroes be able to team up with T-Bone Pickings? How can they work together to sabotage the Plans of Googol the Destroyer? Or will Googol the Destroyer succeed in his plans to wreak the End of Days and control all the data of the universe?

    Tune in to next week's episode of Googol the Destroyer!

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai