Last week a 1.5 MW wind turbine collapsed at NextEra Energy Resources' Mill Run wind farm in Pennsylvania. (The screenshot at right is NOT it, but the dramatic 2008 collapse of a turbine at Hornslet, Denmark. See below for amazing video.) No one was injured. 

“Turbine failure is extremely rare but something we obviously take very seriously,” says [Nextra spokesperson Steven] Stengel. “We've engaged our experts that are currently at the site investigating the cause. The other nine turbines are currently not operating.”

So why is this good news? Let's pitch that big ol' softball to John Hanger: 

A collapse of a wind turbine is as bad as it gets at a wind farm. But wind at its worst does not cause 300,000 customers to lose water service. It does not cause a fireball that levels homes and kills 47 people sleeping in their homes, as happened with an oil train explosion in Canada.  Wind at its worst does not cover vast portions of the Gulf of Mexico with oil.

And solar spills? Worst that could happen is you get a sunburn. 

PAUL RAUBER is a senior editor at Sierra. He is the author, with Carl Pope, of the happily outdated Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress. Otherwise he is a cyclist, cook, and dad. Follow him on Twitter @paulrauber