It is a relatively cool, overcast day here in Cambridge, MA, a little damp, with only the occasional tree moving in almost 24 hours. But yesterday I was chased up the New York Thruway by a storm carrying hail and cutting visibility to yards. These weather conditions suggest that today is not a good day for the prime candidates promoted as the sustainable fuels of tomorrow, here in the Northeast: wind and solar.

The larger blow to the sustainable energy story today, however, is not the chill of an autumn day in July in Massachusetts, but rather the colder stillness of the lack of movement by Boone Pickens on his wind farm in Texas. The reasons for the turn around depend on who you read.