A good introduction to Google's history of involvement in green energy with speculation as to whether Google intends to actually enter the energy market, rather than just supply its own needs. I've linked to Google's "knol [the co's term for a unit of knowlege] on green energy by Jeffrey Greenblatt, the co's Climate and Energy Technology Manager. Also a May 2010 google blog post on its first investment in utility-scale power and a piece on the fuel cell producer which has Google, among others as its customer.

This is a really interesting development that surely marks a turning point for the U.S. energy market, and this article strongly supports the story with good links, including a PDF of the FERC's order. Lombardi does a good job of following Google's official line about getting into the energy business, showing that they have played this move pretty close to the vest before finally coming out and entering the market.

Context could have been broader. I only get a small sense of how common it is for other large companies to deal in private energy and on what scale they do so.

Since I don't know much about this topic, I need much more context to understand why this development with the FERC regarding Google is newsworthy; I found it interesting to read and learn about, but how does this event impact me and other people worldwide? Features a Google employee as its only-quoted source.

Energy Googled! Well, it's a bit of new information. A answer perhaps to the major energy firms backed by lavish US government subsidies and tax breaks, who are putting their mega-windfall profits from rising energy prices into vastly expensive and environmentally questionable schemes to extract oil and gas from Alaska and the Arctic, or to drill in the deep and difficult waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the outcome we're watching now! Good. Good going!