Western states seem to have a wide portfolio of energy resources and the consumer markets to better meet the ambitions of both energy-producing states and energy-importing states. What's missing is a strategy for beefing up and modernizing the Western electrical grid to make those connections, according to industry officials. "We can't even connect the dots on a piece of paper. It's like the weather -- everybody talks about it, but nobody ever does anything about it," said Richard Walje, president of Rocky Mountain Power.

A Canadian company is seeking wind power developers to move electricity along a pair of $3 billion transmission lines in Montana and Wyoming -- potentially spurring a major increase in renewable power exported from the Rockies to the Southwest. The two lines would move 3,000 megawatts of power from each state. That's more than three times as much wind power as Wyoming currently produces and eight times what Montana has.

Wyoming wind power, if reasonably developed, would more than double the amount of electricity produced by all other sources in the state, a representative of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority said Wednesday. Wyoming wind ultimately could produce about 15,000 megawatts a year, Steve Ellenbecker told the Wind Energy Task Force at the McMurry Training Center. "Fifteen-thousand megawatts is a threshold we could accomplish," Ellenbecker said.

Wyoming's recent rush on wind power led by utility giant Rocky Mountain Power could settle out during the next year and not pick up again until major new power lines begin connecting to the state in 2014. But even that's not a given. "Good luck getting financed," said Nate Sandvig, project manager for Horizon Wind Energy. Wind proponents say credit markets make it difficult for independent generators and transmission companies to get into the game.

Wind farms generate a lot of electricity, but not a large number of permanent jobs once the construction phase is over. And although the projects are desirable because they use an abundant renewable natural resource, the only significant revenue the units are generating in Wyoming at this point is through property taxes in the counties where they are located. Their property tax bills so far are modest.