You might have heard about fuel cells for cars. But what about for phones? That's the unlikely but surprisingly successful experiment Verizon has been conducting for the last year in Garden City, New York, News.com reports. A 292,000-sq. ft. telephone and data switching center that provides service to 35,000 customers on Long Island is powered on fuel cells, using the electrical grid only as a backup. As a result, the company has cut energy costs by $680,000 a year -- almost triple the savings it expected. As a bonus, it's eliminated 11.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

The fuel cell installation's a great idea -- cutting pollution is laudable, and saving money is better yet. But those savings must be coming at the expense of the local electric utility, the Long Island Power Authority.

Our suggestion to LIPA: Install VOIP lines in your local office, and maybe keep a Verizon land line or two around just as a backup. Turnabout is entirely fair play.