Besides the fact that I'm generally interested in "all things wind", I found the piece interesting mainly because of how they covered the story. My personal rationale (as well as that of my master's program) for promoting and working to advance renewable energy is based primarily on environmental and energy concerns:
- lowering carbon dioxide & other greenhouse gases (in order to help Earth "keep cool" and avoid increasingly likely catastrophic damage, such as polar ice meltdowns, dramatically rising sea levels, mass extinction of certain animal & plant species, and generally an unhealthy planet);
- protecting human civilization from the inevitable future scarcity of carbon-based fuels (upon which mankind has primarily relied to supply its ever-increasing energy needs throughout the past 200-300 years); a more specific version of this idea is that of "energy independence" (i.e. generating energy locally, instead of relying on sources provided and controlled by foreign -- and sometime volatile -- entities);
- utilizing free, clean resources that never run out (until our sun burns out, which isn't predicted for the next billion years), in order to accomplish the first two objectives.
So what did I find interesting about the CBS piece on Texan wind energy? They never once mentioned the environment or greenhouse gases... or the need for long-lasting, sustainable energy resources... It's primarily a news article about money: the economic prosperity created by the booming Texan wind industry.
Since I'm not a "money guy" (e.g. my distaste for the single-minded focus on profit-making was mostly why I got out of the electrical "widgits" manufacturing industry), I sometimes forget that money is how -- and why -- things get done in the private sector. And since financial prosperity is generally so important to Americans, I suppose it makes sense to speak to this concern, rather than preaching about environmental advantages.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how the budding "green energy" industry will mesh into America's energy landscape in the coming years and decades... and how average Americans' lives will be affected by it.
