Risk-free Iconography as Energy Policy

I was struck by this paragraph in Sunday's New York Times:

Still, “there’s a huge danger if we try to build public policy about risk-free iconography and storytelling,” Mr. Godin says. “We end up with nuclear waste dumps and ethanol. There really is no free lunch, but that’s a difficult story to tell.”

It is a poignant summary of the whole article, that discusses the role of the wind turbine as an icon of a better energy future. While some of my colleagues might use such an article as a springboard to condescendingly dismiss wind energy, I hope that the above paragraph is appreciated by someone who can help wind energy grow without promising the moon (or all its He-3).