I received an e-mail today. I applaud the Southern California Gas Company for offering to make a donation if I go paperless with regard to billing: "The Gas Company(SM) has teamed up with the California State Parks Foundation to help protect California's magnificent state parks. The Gas Company will donate $5* to the California State Parks Foundation for every customer who goes paperless for this campaign. Paperless online billing is environmentally friendly, secure and a convenient way to receive and pay your bill. ... " // The Gas Company would have done better if this had been a school fundraiser: $5 for every switch to paperless by a family. Why not plan such a fundraiser now and announce in September? // What about people who do not use the Internet or online bill payment? How do we persuade them to go paperless? This could be tied to a school fundraiser. Somebody in the family would be designated to receive the online bill and notify the person. Even better, two family members would receive the online bill, which means that the gas company would have to modify the registration form a bit. // How about online bill payment? To protect the person, a bank can set up a payment account with an agreed-upon amount automatically transferred monthly into that account, in anticipation of coming payments. The payment-account data would be given to the gas company and other entities doing billing online. The harm from any breach of security would be minimal, because a relatively small amount would be in the account at any one time and only certain entities would be authorized to draw from it. // The gas company has a good idea which could become a great idea which others would emulate. Just a little thought and effort, well within the company's ability. Thank you.