We witnessed the veneer of the controlled economy begin peeling when home foreclosures accelerated. Then appeared the ugly stains on the walls beneath as banks started to fail.
Here in Texas, we’re all watching T. Boone Pickens. We can’t help it because his commercials keep coming on our TVs. Seriously, wind energy is necessary and essentially good. Thank you for erecting wind turbines. But there is a problem here. Other states and nations are watching Texas, too. And its embarrassing to be laughed at as the people of this great state sit idly by while Mr. Pickens runs around with his paintbrush making pretty pictures of how water gets to Texas homes.
Based on various articles listed at the end of this blog, the situation seems to be fairly summarized thusly: Someone who is very rich, who has released a book entitled, “The First Billion is the Hardest,” wants to sell water, the most basic building block of life, to his fellow Texans. The water comes from under his land, but it is also part of the largest single network of underground water in the U.S., the Ogallala Aquifer. Since some property owners between the panhandle and the water’s more southern destinations might not want a pipe going through their land, it was convenient that during the last legislative session Texas law was amended to make it easier to form a water district. By forming a water district with his friends as members, the would-be water baron then secured access to the state’s ability build on an individual’s land if they won’t sell the right to do so for the common good. Even though state action is involved, the would-be water baron runs television ads saying the plan is his and for the viewers to continue pressing state legislators. The goal is to take billions of gallons of water out of the source each year, sell to people who may actually need it but who might conceivably argue that it should not be sold for a profit even though it legally can be, at a time when studies have already found the water source, and therefore its overlying grassland and wildlife, seriously threatened. The water baron presumably stands to profit.
There’s little point in ensuring the earth’s ability to sustain life if it’s not worth living in. What’s the point of having clean air if people are denying others medical supplies or forcing the poor to go into debt for them? What’s the point in running your car on sugarcane if you’re cutting down rainforests to do it? It’s all one thing. There is only one cause. It’s not enough to say you’ll make enough money to buy your own medical supplies or you won’t live where bombs are going off. First, what about everyone else? Second, it’s all connected—you can’t build your own rain forest.
Environmentalism is about more than the resources; it’s about a way of being. It’s about respect for the life of the planet as well as the people and animals on the planet. The end does not justify the means. I think most people care about the process. It’s not okay to disrespect people just because you gave them a wind turbine. I think most people who care about the planet don’t want the process of nurturing it to be tainted by the attitudes that sickened it in the first place.
Texas, based on its position on the earth and its present abundance, has potential to become a leader in solar power development. It has the potential for developing an economy strong enough to allow us to obtain water from the most prudent source.
Renewable resources are coming. They’re already here. There is no stopping them at this point. So the people of Texas can be confident about setting the agenda for development of wind, solar and water, in accordance with their own standards, not automatically in accordance with the standards of any person who has a lot of money and says “wind farm”. Now is our chance to establish a new way doing things in Texas. We had the oil barons. We don’t necessarily need water barons. We can do this on our own terms, together (and that includes Mr. T. Boone Pickens if he wants to play nice).
http://earth2tech.com/2008/06/20/t-boone-pickens-taps-water-wind-for-land-grab/
http://www.kauz.com/news/19017259.html
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_25/b4089040017753.htm
http://www.edf.org/documents/7011_Potential%20Impacts%20of%20Biofuels%20Expansion.pdf
http://www.texasmonthly.com/2001-08-01/feature6.php
http://ocolly.com/2008/09/08/pickens-teaches-life-lesson-‘the-first-billion-is-the-hardest’/
