Until September 11, Richard Sheirer, director of the Office of Emergency Management, was mostly sweating the small stuff: burst water mains, power outages, rodent-control problems. Then, with his command center destroyed and his friends missing, he became the unsung hero of the hot zone -- and one of the most powerful men in New York.

The scramble to keep the lights on this summer has already cost a fortune and enraged environmentalists -- and it's only going to heat up when the mercury rises. If we don't get smarter about energy sources for the city, in two years it's California, here we come.