2 Texans Down Under

As I write this I am a passenger in a rented hybrid car passing through a forest of huge windmills generating electricity southwest of Sweetwater in West Texas. The three-bladed white giants are arranged in rows that stretch to the horizon on both sides of Highway 70. I’m told they are more than 20 stories tall.

This small area west of Abilene produces vast amounts of electricity in one of the cleanest possible ways, by harvesting it from wind.

The Hertz car rental agency near Love Field in Dallas let us have this Prius for $5 a day extra and it is getting between 45 and 50 miles per gallon of gasoline (or as our Aussie friends would say, petrol), saving us money when we stop to buy fuel that costs nearly $3 a gallon.

These rolling hills near Sweetwater have always been beautiful to my eyes, but now they seem useful as well. It is thrilling to see evidence of humankind’s attempts to adapt to the realities of economic and climatic change.

Kristi and I are encouraged by changes in our home state such as these windmills and the availability of relatively energy efficient cars, Read the rest of this entry »