Surely rural Texans will wake up and smell the coffee when they don't have water to make coffee.
The Guardian: A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water
Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water.
"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: 'dear God help us. That was the first thought that came to mind."
--snip--
Ranchers dumped most of their herds. Cotton farmers lost up to half their crops. The extra draw down, coupled with drought, made it impossible for local ranchers to feed and water their herds, said Buck Owens. In a good year, Owens used to run 500 cattle and up to 8,000 goats on his 7,689 leased hectares (19,000 acres). Now he's down to a few hundred goats.
The drought undoubtedly took its toll but Owens reserved his anger for the contractors who drilled 104 water wells on his leased land, to supply the oil companies.
Unlike oil and natural gas, renewable energy can peacefully coexist with farmers and people who like to drink water. I'm not sure how active 350.org is down in Texas, but it sounds like there are some pretty angry farmers ready to see the light.
My apologies for the short diary, but the article is well worth reading, and while a tragedy in the short term, may give us the impetus to take back the House and get moving on fighting global warming.