In March, the Carnival Dream cut short a Caribbean cruise, with Carnival reporting that the ship's emergency generator failed.

CNN: SHARE THIS

Of course, that brought up some major questions as to whether or not their emergency generator was going to keep going.

CNN: Udoji: Katrina survivors 'screaming for help'

Or if the gasoline-powered emergency generator came with a true-life story about what happened to the family that had one of these things running indoors?

FORBES: Warning: Lawyers Write Dull Copy

GM's vice president for research and development, Lawrence Burns, says consumers have to start thinking of their car as a power-supplying appliance as well as a means of transportation. (A hybrid car, for example, might be an alternative to an emergency generator during an ice storm.) Meanwhile, GM is endorsing Huber's thinking with plans to introduce plug-in versions of the Chevrolet Volt and a Saturn vue crossover by 2010.

FORBES: A Light Bulb Goes On

An emergency backup generator is only allowed to operate for 200 hours every year and only in the event of an emergency power failure or for routine testing and maintenance.

FORBES: Backup Generators Are the Bad and Ugly of Decentralized Energy

"During regularly scheduled testing of the ship's emergency diesel generator, a malfunction occurred, " Carnival said in a statement.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Carnival said the ship's emergency diesel generator failed, but the cruise line disputed notions of a widespread system failure.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In a statement, Carnival said the ship's emergency diesel generator failed.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In 2007 an emergency diesel generator began smoking during testing.

WSJ: Japan Plant Had Troubled History