Landowners are getting lucrative offers to lease land to build turbines for an energy source.

How hard the wind blows across wide-open western Oklahoma is starting to matter to more than just a few ranchers.

Already a lot of landowners stand to benefit from what is being called a "massive land rush" that has been generated by wind farm developers who are crisscrossing at least 24 counties, offering lucrative leases that make wind seem like it is as valuable as oil.

The bet is that one day soon the wind will matter in Tulsa, where the demand for electricity produced by the American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma reached an all-time high Tuesday, and where manufacturers of the giant turbines and other components that harness the wind may gravitate because of its central location in the wind tunnel of America.

"Our challenge is to go beyond the pure extraction of that resource," said Miles Tolbert, state secretary of the environment, about wind energy. "We want to see the turbines spinning and we want to see spin-offs."

Before that happens, energy experts and state leaders acknowledge that Oklahoma has some catching up to do. Despite an abundance of wind, the state ranks only eighth in the nation in wind power production and will drop another notch later this year when Kansas adds more capacity.

"We are sitting in the middle of wind central, but they (wind developers) didn't look at us because of the perception that Oklahoma was hostile to alternative energy," said David Fleischaker, state secretary of energy. "But we have the resource, and now the light bulb has gone on."

A big step was taken recently when lawmakers approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Weldon Watson, R-Tulsa, to allow AEP-PSO and OG&E to pass along construction costs to consumers for what will be the largest wind-energy transmission line west of the Mississippi River.

In the next session, lawmakers also might be asked to consider setting thresholds for how much energy derived from alternative fuels should be part of a utility's portfolio. Although other states have used RPS's (Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards) to demonstrate their commitment to alternative fuels and attract new industry, there appears to be no consensus among wind proponents that it is essential to Oklahoma's success.

The state now has wind farms near Woodward, Weatherford, Fort Supply and Lawton, which contain about 500 wind turbines that generate about 700 megawatts of electricity. According to Scott Greene, director of the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative, wind developers have submitted interconnect requests with the Southwest Power Pool, which monitors a regional power grid, to produce 10 times that much capacity in five years, serving more than a million homes.

If Oklahoma takes advantage of its potential - the National Renewable Energy Laboratory predicts Oklahoma will be the second-largest producer of wind power in the nation by 2030 - the industry could produce $500 million in tax revenue and 18,000 jobs, Greene said

"This isn't an alternative to anything," he said. "This is a major part of our electricity blend."

Greene said two companies that propose to build $200 million manufacturing facilities "somewhere in the plains" consider Tulsa a prime location because of its access to water, highways and rail transportation and because the Tulsa Port of Catoosa is a free trade zone. Using the port, manufacturers would have a cost-efficient way to import raw materials to assemble the components for the towers and could then use the port's connection to the Mississippi River to deliver the finished products.

It hasn't hurt Oklahoma, either, that energy investor Boone Pickens has made wind energy a keystone in his plan to make the U.S. energy independent. He is calling for 20 percent of the nation's electricity to be generated by wind, which would allow more compressed natural gas to be used to power vehicles, playing once again to Oklahoma's strength.

Pickens has been asked to be the keynote speaker at Oklahoma's first major wind energy conference Dec. 2-3 in Oklahoma City. The conference will be sponsored by the secretaries of energy and the environment.

The Commerce Department, which has set a wind conference next year, also is working with the CareerTech system and community colleges and universities to build a workforce that would entice wind developers and manufacturers.

"From my perspective, Oklahoma has a great opportunity in front of it that can help stabilize energy costs," said Reed Armstrong, president of the Wind Coalition and a wind developer. "The higher energy prices go, the more attractive wind looks. But it all has to come together with a good solid market and the transmission and great wind resources."