Comments on: Winds Of Change Blow In Texas

Once Known For Its Oil And Gas, West Texas Is At The Center Of The Wind Energy Boom

[westxdust]

I am from west Texas. Everytime I drive home to see family, I see these tubines. They are simply big and ugly. What people need to understand is that wind energy is not the end all be all. It alone will not save our country from our energy problems. The money these people make off of the tubines will not make up for the loses. It''s not worth it. I miss the unadulterated landscape, and I know that I''m not the only one.

[edward1975-2009]

There''s gotta be something to it, here in Illinois, we are seeing more and more communities forming power alliances and funding co-op wind farms. Anythig that provides competition for the power companies is alright with me. When the freeze came off the power rates, even though just like the oil companies they were making large profits, they raised their rates on an average over 33%. And that is just rotten.

[gkc99]

In west Texas you can''t even step off the road to take a leak, the whole place is plastered with their beloved barb wire fences and no-tresspassing signs, ''cuz those Texassholes LOVE private property so much.

So if someone puts a windmill on their property, tough ******* west Texans, that''s how your do business there. So suck it up.

[redbarron73]

Dale Rankin. Makin'' money from oil are ya?

[itgranny]

While I believe that wind energy is a good thing overall, I don''t believe it''s as good as they make it sound.

The energy that the windmills produce in rural areas doesn''t stay there. It''s too expensive therefore, it gets shipped off to cities (my area over 200 miles away) so city folks can pay a premium for it and feel better when they take that 1/2 hour hot shower because it''s "green".

Another problem is the staggaring amt of money that goes into these things. It''s the cool thing without a lot of competition so money is no object. There''s no one out there that''s trying to make a more cost efficient model. Everyone''s trying to get a piece of the pie and noones looking at the cost; (sort of like the internet buzz in the late 90''s). The companies that are making these things aren''t American companies either. Suzlon is India, Vestas is denmark. Aren''t american''s smart enough to figure this out?

And finally, coal and nuclear plants still need to run because wind can''t be depended on nor do we have ways to store energy so that it can get us through the times when the wind doesn''t blow.

We can make this work but we need to think through the storage problems and quit with the greed.

[edward1975-2009]

I hope more towns and states go to wind energy, just to keep the power companies in line. The way that the power companies screw the public, after we build their plants with tax dollars and give them tax breaks, is ridiculous.