Surprise, Surprise: Texas is One of the Nation’s Largest Producers of Renewable Energy – So Says Local Green Queen

I love this post on Huffington Post by Anna Clark, who also writes for Joel Kotkin, and who I totally need to re-connect with.

Anna is the Green Queen of not just Dallas, but Texas. In her op-ed piece for The Huffington Post, she writes that while the Dallas series may portray as as the center of oil gushers and relentless consumerism, we are actually one of the biggest leaders in creating and producing renewable energy. To whit, I did not know this:

” Half Price Books was the first to install a public electric vehicle charging station in its parking lot, and energy retailer TXU recently unveiled two more chargers at Dallas City Hall. Houston-based eVgo, partnering with national retailers such as Walgreens and Cracker Barrel, has also installed six Freedom Stations in the region, some of which include level three chargers, giving EV drivers up to 50 miles in 15 minutes. Such companies are helping us adjust to the transition to electrification and other 21^st century technologies.”

Some of the other things Anna brings to light on her site/blog never make it into the narcissistic main-stream media. (Shocker.) I know T. Boone Pickens is spearheading legislation to transition hauling trucks to natural gas, a cleaner burning and necessary, if controversial, domestic energy source. Course, he’s in the biz and the media says he has a vested interest, which he does, but if that vested interest gets us off fossil fuels, what’s wrong with that? I have a vested interest in this blog! She also tells us about Elizabeth Dry, a public school teacher who launched the Promise of Peace Garden, and Jeanne McCarthy, who leads the non-profit Real School Gardens.

“Both these leaders are introducing community gardens to impoverished children in North Texas.”

I am kind of tired of everyone thinking that just because we like our Jimmy Choos and Loubies, and we drive to our homes in the suburbs, we are not green. One of my biggest pet peeves is my beloved New York City where density rules. Yes, everyone lives on top of one another and you don’t need a car in New York City. You can WALK, and boy do I when there. But New Yorkers create so much garbage! They use take-out containers for everything; plastic containers by the boatload. Recycle it, sure, but can it really be used again?  Who can dry clothes outside on a line in New York City? It’s a totally disposal environment.

Anyhoo, if you haven’t, check out Anna’s great blog. I am so re-connecting with her — in a New York minute! Oh and check out her book: Green, American Style.