Winds Of Change Blow In Texas

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

(CBS)  West Texas is cowboy country. Here, scratching out a living is often dictated by what a cow can fetch, or what a barrel of oil brings.

Dry, dusty towns are dotted with reminders of hard times: vacant motels; rusted cars parked at drive-in theaters that have long stood silent - theaters where crowds once flocked to see films that reflected their lives, like "Giant."

Set in West Texas, "Giant" told the real-life story of cattle barons refusing to change with the times.

That resistance to change and the desire to preserve a way of life, still remains. But today, the cause of concern is different - with rusted and retired pump jacks standing as witnesses of booms and busts gone by, a new "giant" looms on the horizon: wind turbines. They're sprouting as fast as Texas wildflowers.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and windmills are no exception. One windmill is taller than the Statue of Liberty. Its huge turbine is longer than an 18-wheeler, and each one can generate enough power for more than 500 homes.

From the air you can see them on almost every mesa, stretching for miles.

"You can look back over here, and keep seein' 'em, another run and another run and another run," rancher Raymond McDaniel, who has more than 50 wind turbines on his land, told CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

For most ranchers in these parts, McDaniel says it was a struggle just to break even in the cattle business.

"There was no water, there was no grass, there was no market," he said. "So everything went downhill pretty good."

But the money they receive from leasing land to power companies and their turbines, he says, has given ranchers some breathing room - money to better tend to their land and their cattle.

But not everyone is happy about the use of wind. In some cases, it is setting neighbor against neighbor.

"I'm offended that my neighbor would sell himself for money and not care what it did to me," Dale Rankin said. "I'm all for people making money. I'm all for people making a profit, having an income, but I think you need to be considerate of your neighbors when you're in that pursuit."

Greg Wortham is one of a new breed of prospectors pursuing wind-energy riches. He cashed in his retirement savings to start the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium and is trying to rally local support for renewable energy. He says the turbines are multiplying.

"West Texas is the 4th largest nation in wind energy today," Wortham said. "There's Germany, Spain, India, and West Texas."

And he's no carpet-bagger: Wortham grew up in Sweetwater, Texas and walked its streets back when it was an oil and gas town. "You could always tell you were home even if you were sleepin' in the car on the way home because you begin to smell oil, which was a beautiful smell," he said.

After high school he headed off to college and the big city where he worked as an energy attorney in New York and Washington, D.C. Now he's back, living in a renovated house just off Main Street, and he was recently elected mayor.

"I didn't come back here to be mayor, that wasn't the plan, but part of it is having been in N.Y. on Sept. 11th and realizing that you have one country, one hometown, and one lifetime to do something," he said.

For him, that something is helping to spark a wind energy gold rush - so far more than $6 billion has been invested in 120 West Texas counties.

"We hear nationally that people are being laid off by tens of thousands. Well, they need to come here. We hear nationally that housing starts are down. Well, West Texas needs hundreds of new, very high quality homes," he said.

To meet hiring demands, the community college has added courses in wind technology. Students are shifting gears to train for careers in wind-farming because the pay is two to three times above the local average.

The industry has given the entire region a second wind - generating new businesses and new construction. Schools are scoring as well. Tiny Trent, Texas has only 60 students in its high school, what used to be one of the poorest schools in the state. It is now state of the art.

"We've got two computer labs - one for the elementary and one for high school," Trent school superintendent Greg Priddy said. "We're getting projectors for every class room."

Priddy says none of this would have been possible without a healthy new tax base fueled by the turbines on the mesa behind the school.

But opponents like Dale Rankin worry all that income may be short-lived. He wonders what might happen if tax subsidies the companies rely on, come to an end.

"They'll shut 'em off and walk away, and we'll be left with thousands and thousands of these monsters littering the landscape," he said.

But that's not the way ranchers like Raymond McDaniel see it. When he looks at all the windmills he has one simple thought:

"A changing world," he said. "Changing world."

[chubbyhubby9]

I understand that change can be hard if it''s not for the better. How much "better" can a person expect? Wind is as free as the sun in West Texas and a wind mill is a far sight "better" than a solar panel would be. Mr. Rankin is too short sighted in his worries about subsidies over the long term independence of this cheap energy. Even if the life of a wind mill is 25 years (at the rate of five hundred homes per wind mill) proper distribution of that energy would far exceed even a 10 year subsidies. As far as the unsightly poles, in six months Mr. Rankin, like city folk, won''t even know they''re there.

[cez4me]

I am interested in other websites that have renewable energy. I''ve spent a lot of time researching it but come up with a lot of dead ends. The Wind resources in Texas saves a LOT of tax Dollars. Most of those Ranchers WERE subsidized with Gov''t money. I''ve been through Texas 5 times this last year and I don''t think they are as ugly as some think.

[decondo]

Does anybody notice what this does to the beauty of the landscape? It''s a hideous sight to some of us. I hope it''s not a flash in the pan. There are more aesthetic approaches to wind harvesting, and, I think there are better newer technologies for capturing wind energy than standard propellers.

[emanresu123]

Nameverify, you are bright and passionate. Don''t let foul language and insults discredit your message.

[emanresu123]

I am very encouraged by the direction and content of this blog! I have felt all along Americans would figure this out before the countrysides are covered with spinners. I have devoted much of 2007 to understanding wind energy''s uniqueness - pros and cons. In the end it is the methods used by the industry to gain approval for siting that bothers me most. That''s not to say the power they produce is reliable or meaningful in the big picture or that the idea isn''t an inefficient use of public funds, just that the industry''s lack of moral fiber is the standout feature in my mind. We have a web site in WESTERN OHIO that discussed WIND ENERGY CONCERNS. If you are interested, please Google to it.
Thank you!

[ukjake12]

Unfortunately, ''windfarms'' don''t work.

There selling point: they ''reduce CO2'' emissions. However, in order to do so they would need to allow somer percentage of either baseload (the constantly running generation, generally coal or nuclear) or spinning reserve (the adjustable output, generally gas-fired) to be taken offline in proportion to the amount of ''wind-generated'' electricity added in.

That has never happened; no country, anywhere, has been able to cut back its conventional production and, in fact, C02 emissions from conventional have increased, since they must ramp up and down (inefficiently burning coal and gas) to compensate for wind variability.

Wind does NOT replace coal or gas; not even a little bit.

I wonder what it''s called when folk are forced to purchase a useless--totally useless--product at a high price, gaining no benefit?

There''s a word for that, I believe.

[radiob-2009]

Thanks to everyone for the links and the consideration given.

[jowand]

radiob you can purchase everything at this web site, dozens of others like this around the country

http://www.affordable-solar.com/renewable.energy.wind.htm

[jowand]

Windmills have been shut down in N California because someone says they are dangerous to some bird species.
They only work when there is a constant wind speed over about the 10 mph minimum for start up; this rules out huge parts of the US. For personal use you need battery storage; with solar electric panels also if you want a reasonably balanced power supply; plus a backup generator,. Cost for a system, 10 kWhrs per day, to supply a smaller home about 30k to 40k depending how much work you want to do, and it will still require a major lifestyle modification.

[itgranny]

http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_smallwind.html

This site has a ton of info.