And now for something completely similar...

(With apologies to Monty Python's creators for appropriating their line).

Now, the latest energy news:

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A natural gas pipeline exploded in north Texas on Monday afternoon, CNN reported.

The blast was originally thought to be an oil well explosion.

An electrical crew was digging a hole when it struck the gas pipeline, an emergency services spokesman in Hood County, Texas, said.

WFAA-TV, the Dallas/Fort Worth station, reported three people were dead and 10 were unaccounted for after the blast.

People dying in large numbers in China, in coal mine explosions and collapses.

People dying in record numbers here, in the US, in the same.

An oil well explosion and leak in the Gulf of Mexico, creating the biggest natural disaster ever.

And now this.

Mind you, this last one is small (unless you're one of the 3 dead or one of their family or friends) but what is it going to take to point us all, as a nation--if not as a world--that we need to invest heavily in the far safer, cleaner and so, smarter solar power, particularly with photovoltaic cells?

If we all have these on our businesses and homes, along with new and better battery technology which, from what I understand is coming along pretty well, all things considered, we would need far less energy companies since we could create a lot of our own power through a calendar year.

Our air would be far cleaner. We would pollute far less, having gotten rid of coal, the transportation of coal and the burning of fossil fuels.

We could also, then, switch the jobs from out of coal mines with their requisite coal dust and health problems for the miners, to much better, cleaner jobs, perhaps installing the solar cells or some other, better, cleaner work.

Is it easy?

Certainly not.

Can we do it overnight?

Again, no way.

But do we need to do it?

I think we all know the answer to that is a resounding "yes".

And it would be "something completely different..."

Link to original post:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100607/us_nm/us_natgas_blast_texas