It was a bold statement Tuesday in Gray County when oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens announced that Pampa would be the wind energy capital of the world. That was shortly followed by another statement. The billionaire said, when he's going to do something, it gets done.

Pickens was talking about his $10.4 billion wind farm set to sprawl across 200,000 Panhandle counties. Pickens said the goal of what will become the worlds largest wind energy facility is to get away from our $700 billion a year dependence on foreign oil, as well as making himself, and local communities more money. His solution? Using resources already available to us.

"Those resources, You've got to use wind and solar. You have to use it, and I'm an oil man talking this way, said Pickens."

He said that by relying more heavily on wind energy as a source of power, we can use natural gas as a fuel for transportation, which would make us less dependent on foreign oil. Something state officials agree with.

"I'm a big proponent of alternative energy to go along with our traditional drilling for oil and gas," said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. "Whether it's in ANWR or wherever. We need to do all these things not just some of them."

So how does this benefit the Panhandle? Well, by putting turbines in Carson, Gray, Roberts, Hemphill and Wheeler Counties, a report by Mesa Energy says 1,495 jobs will be added to the area during the construction phase, and 720 during the normal operation.

How does that translate into the economy? Earnings in these counties will rise by $68.7 million a year during construction, and by a whopping $119.8 million a year during operation. The biggest impact will come from lease payments made to landowners, which total $65.3 million a year.

As an example of wind energy's benefit, the town of Sweetwater recently build a smaller wind farm, and has seen dramatic results.

"It's been amazing," said Sweetwater Mayor, Greg Wortham. "It's billions of dollars in new investments. Hundreds of new jobs, dozens of new businesses, new schools in the region. Incredibly high paying jobs. New opportunity for people 16 to 70"

Dwight Fiveash of the Pampa Economic Development Corporation told us that he hopes this will give the area a diversified enough industry so that the economy, and population stay on a stable increase from here on out.

Construction on the wind farm is set to begin in the summer of 2010. Pickens said they hope to generate 1,000 megawatts by 2011, and 4,000 megawatts by 2014