Peaches are the sweetest fruit.

Back in the day, before this boom or even the last boom, I once found myself unemployed and nearly broke in a fleabag motel in Colorado. It wasn't long before I ran out of food.

What happened next is inexplicable.

It was a fall morning. A couple in the next room, who were themselves on the move after their farm failed, packed up and were heading somewhere they hoped life would look more kindly on them.

As the couple said good-bye, the middle-aged farmer's wife gave me four mason jars of peaches. For a couple of days, I ate nothing but peaches.

Soon after, I scourged up a little temporary work. I bought a couple bags of groceries to go with what was left of those peaches. I found a better job and paid the rent.

I wasn't broke for lack of ambition or moral defect or drug addiction. Sometimes, times are just tough.

Many people turning up at the Salvation Army or Joshua's Storehouse are no different. They come to Wyoming because they want to work, and to turn their luck around.

I'm thinking I should buy some peaches for those Casper food banks. Perhaps peaches will be as sweet to someone else as they once were to me.

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In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Energy reckoned that 20 percent of the nation's electricity could come from wind power by 2030.

In order for that to happen, Congress will have to develop supportive polices to encourage wind development.

Substantial transmission planning and expansion will be needed to make wind energy available where it's needed, along with electric system policies that are conducive to wind energy, according to the report.

Continued advancements in wind technology also will be required.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is already building what could end up being the largest wind farm in the world, producing enough power for the equivalent of 1.3 million homes.

Internationally, China is a major player in wind energy. According to an article at ShanghaiDaily.com, China wants to expand its wind power generating capacity to 100,000 megawatts by 2020, a fivefold increase over its previously announced target.

If China changes a subsidy system that gives wind power larger premiums than coal, the article says wind power could reach 120,000 megawatts by 2020, or the equivalent capacity to five Three Gorges dams.