While Al Gore was challenging Americans to invest in a carbon-free energy future, Texas utility regulators voted to to invest nearly $5 billion to build the transmission system needed so the state can harness its expansive wind resource and send it to the metro areas of the state.
This pretty much makes Texas the nation's leader in stepping up to the massive challenge Gore was talking about, since investing in the system of power lines to move clean electricity to where its needed was one of the obstacles Gore said need to be overcome.
The Texas investment won't just expand wind power; it will create a lot of jobs. Lots of companies are interested in building the lines, as the Dallas Morning news reports, which means they'll be hiring lots of workers to build, deliver and install the transmission towers and related equipment needed to build out the grid. That's a whole lot of jobs created by clean energy investments.