Everyone it seems has been investing in green energy – from Google to ExxonMobil. But this year the booming sector is suddenly in a serious funk. So is this time to get out – or jump in and snap up some long-term winners?

Texas is in an enviable position in that we have more than enough mineral resources to meet our energy needs. But environmental activists are tightening the screws on Texas to keep those resources in the ground and out of our power lines. How should Texas balance our growing energy needs with environmental concerns? Dr. Sterling Burnett, a Senior Fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis and for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, recently wrote a paper entitled, "Power for the Future: The Debate Over New Coal-Fired Power Plants in Texas," and he is our guest on this week's Texas PolicyCast.

Last week, a power plant operated by Milwaukee-based We Energies became the first to begin capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide from its exhaust with the sole purpose of keeping the planet-warming gas out of the atmosphere. It uses a new chilled-ammonia technology developed by French power equipment company Alstom Power. But successor technologies have recently emerged that could make scrubbing carbon dioxide from smokestacks (the most expensive part of the process) much cheaper. In the past few weeks, research groups have reported of materials that can accumulate enormous volumes of carbon dioxide on their surfaces and can also be easily reused.

For months, the new chairman of the Public Utility Commission, Barry Smitherman, has been telling audiences that Texas will soon need a more power plants to sustain a growing population and economy.

Some have argued that Texas' future power demands can be satisfied largely through a combination of conservation and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. But even under the most optimistic assumptions of their potential, the state's utilities still will have to construct dozens of base-load power plants in the next several decades.

Chicken fat and a $3.5 million investment are behind a breakthrough in the way Texans heat, cool and light their homes and offices.

Polar bears, children with tarred faces and melting ice caps seem to be everywhere these days. As Hollywood genuflects before Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, I am trying to determine what actual good is coming from all the noise on global warming.

When the sun shines bright on their home in New York's Hudson Valley, John and Anna Bagnall live out a homeowner's fantasy.

Their electricity meter runs backward.

Though embraced by state political leaders as a clean, renewable electricity source and welcomed by many rural landowners as newfound income, wind farms are gathering fresh opposition from Texas ranchers who say they are an ugly, noisy blight on the wide-open landscape.

The editorial "Focus 2007: Global, national, area issues demanding attention" (Dec. 31) listed energy policy as one of five issues that have priority this year. The editorial called for an emphasis on conservation and alternative energy sources, including renewable forms such as solar, wind, biomass and geothermal.