Any news story with "senate," "bill" and "in-lieu-of-taxes" in the lead sentence is likely to put everybody to sleep - but this is the sort of boring event that has to happen if the country’s energy habits are going to change.

The story involves a New Hampshire bill that would give cities the right to negotiate with renewable-energy plants on ways to bypass standard property tax payments. The idea is to add financial flexibility to help New Hampshire lure alternatives to fossil fuels. Help is needed because the century head start in R&D possessed by oil, coal et. al. gives them a huge financial boost over renewables, and money is the deciding factor in "green" decisions at least as often as environmental concern.