WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Multiple reports and studies, especially those published in the last year, suggest the United States, specifically the East Coast, has great potential for offshore wind. The politicized debate over whether to develop wind power offshore has dragged on since the late 1990s, when the first project was proposed in Cape Cod, Mass., off the Nantucket Sound. Since then there have been several other proposals, none of which has been completely approved.

The region long known for sheep and goats, cattle feedyards, cotton fields and oil derricks is evolving into a hub of alternative energy, with plans for ethanol plants and wind farms, and possible nuclear reactors and coal-powered plants. "These rural communities have to find something they can have in their area that provides quality of life and will generate the economic activity that allows communities to thrive and grow," said Greg Clary, a Texas Cooperative Extension economist who works with the Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.

LUBBOCK - Texas figures to lead the nation in renewable energy production by 2025 and stands to gain $22.8 billion in annual economic activity and 173,400 jobs overall, according to a study backed by a group that supports alternative sources of power.

Trying to get a firmer grasp on the implications of a "wind park" in Gillespie County, around 280 concerned citizens attended an educational meeting Thursday at the Hangar Hotel Conference Center. There, they heard an independent speaker talk about both the pros and cons of wind-powered electricity generation as well as give advice to landowners on what to watch for in legal agreements with wind power companies. The event, hosted by the Gillespie County Economic Development Commission (EDC), featured a four-hour presentation by Terry A. Argotsinger, an Accredited Farm Manager and Accredited Rural Appraiser (ARA) from Iowa, who frequently provides expert witness court testimony on agricultural matters.

The Energy Department announced Monday it will provide $4 million to two projects in Texas and Massachusetts for research into designing and building the next generation of large wind turbine blades.

Sarita, Texas - After a century and a half as cordial neighbors, two of the nation's biggest ranches find themselves feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys over wind energy and wildlife and whether the two can coexist. The storied King and Kenedy ranches, which together cover nearly 1.3 million acres in sparsely populated south Texas, are at odds over plans to erect 240-plus wind-powered turbines on the smaller Kenedy property. The structures and their massive blades can stand 400 feet tall - taller than most 30-story buildings. The King Ranch, with 825,000 acres near the Texas Gulf Coast, says the turbines will interfere with migratory birds' flight patterns, threaten other wildlife and create an eyesore.

FREDERICKSBURG - Residents of this scenic Hill Country community are split over a California company's interest in building a field of wind turbines north of town to generate electricity.

Community leaders in Fredericksburg say a major power corporation is exploring the possibility of building a wind farm in their county. Thursday morning, a special meeting was held to answer some questions. Residents want to know what could happen to the area if giant wind turbines are built north of town. Most windmills in Gillespie County pump water to irrigate farms and ranches.

TXU, Texas' biggest electricity producer, and the wind farms, units of Florida-based FPL Group, are suing each other over claims each failed to live up to contracts from 2001 to 2005. Dallas-based TXU says the wind farms failed to supply power. The farms say TXU gave preference to its West Texas plant, leaving them without access to power lines. The trial started Tuesday in a Dallas state court and is scheduled to last two weeks.

In the next several years, foreign companies plan to invest more than $1 billion in two large wind energy farms on a remote portion of the 400,000-acre Kenedy Ranch bordering the Laguna Madre. "We'll build 157 turbines along about 10 miles of coastline. We're starting construction in early 2008, and we'll be generating by 2009," said John Calaway, chief development officer for Babcock & Brown Ltd., an Australian company. An adjacent project by PPM Energy, now owned by the Spanish giant Iberdrola, is on a similar timetable, with a plan to operate 84 turbines. A second phase could double PPM's output. "We've been talking about 400 megawatts, and we hope to do more," said Jan Johnson, a spokesperson for PPM in Portland, Ore.

Lawyers and other wind energy development stakeholders will gather at Texas State Technical College-West Texas in Sweetwater to assess the swiftly evolving state of wind energy law in Texas. The second annual Wind Law conference is sponsored by the Texas Tech University School of Law, the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium and the American Wind Energy Association. The conference will be held in the heart of America's wind energy industry. Texas leads the nation in wind energy capacity, with the biggest pieces located in Nolan and Taylor counties.

T. Boone Pickens and his Mesa Group are working on a wind energy project that would tower above any other in the world. The multi-billion dollar wind energy project, they are working on cover's a four county region. Mostly of the development will be seen in Gray and Roberts counties, with a little Hemphill and Wheeler counties.

While offshore wind-energy projects have been slow to get off the ground elsewhere in the United States, two Louisiana businessmen quietly have been making history off the Texas coast. Herman Schellstede and Howard Schoeffler and their company, Wind Energy Systems Technologies LLC, have received the first permit issued in the United States to build offshore wind towers to produce electricity. Last month, the company finished putting up a 280-foot tower with 17 instruments to test, among other things, the wind, waves and bird deaths.

Plans to build what would have been the nation's largest offshore wind farm in South Texas have been called off because the multibillion-dollar project didn't make economic sense, the developer said Monday...Babcock & Brown Ltd. is moving on with an onshore wind farm in South Texas' Kenedy County, a $700 million-plus venture that calls for 157 turbines on thousands of acres, Calaway said. He noted the expense of building an offshore farm can be more than double the cost of one on land.

There is yet another plan to get wind power to the people who need it. In testimony filed with the Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday, that group's director of transmission oversight backtracked on a previous plan he proposed. T. Brian Almon said the Panhandle Loop plan is still a bad idea, but sending power to the Dallas area via Oklahoma by the X Plan is not such a good idea either. "I believe that there exist at this time uncertainties related to how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would react to a very large export from Texas and then import into Texas of power," he said.

To help Fredericksburg area residents learn more about wind-powered electrical generators, a public information event has been scheduled here for June 21 by the Gillespie County Economic Development Commission. Scheduled from 9 a.m. until 12 noon that Thursday in the Hangar Hotel Conference Center, the three-hour session will feature a presentation by Terry Argotsinger, accredited farm manager and accredited rural appraiser from Iowa. Greg Snelgrove, EDC executive director, said the June 21 meeting is intended as a public education activity for any interested individuals, including landowners, who want to learn more about the impact of wind-powered energy on land ownership.

This year Fort Collins Wind Power Program will hand over more than $1 million to Platte River Power Authority to help the city reach its goal of having 15 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2017. Of that money, some $366,000 will be used to purchase what are called renewable energy credits (RECs) from out-of-state projects that cannot-or will not-detail how the money is being used to help reach that goal. Without such accountability, it is unclear how Fort Collins' wind power dollars are helping to create new renewable energy, which is the ultimate goal of these credits.

An older generation of about 150 people from Stephenville and surrounding areas turned out for Bill Ladd's anti-wind farm meeting at Henderson Junior High School last night. Property owners Charles and Nell Kennedy, of Eastland, said they had come just to see what it was all about. "We're here to find out about it just in case we are approached by anybody," Nell Kennedy said. Charles Kennedy said they owned property and had already heard of a wind farm that might be introduced near them. Ladd lined up five speakers opposed to wind farms.

"It's too early to know what will happen, so let's focus on this one and make it clear it can be integrated with others," said Jolly Hayden, vice president of transmission development for FPLE and president of Lone Star Transmission. Until the Public Utilities Commission identifies the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones where wind energy can be best developed, there are a lot of questions about exactly where new wind farms will go up and what transmission system will be needed.

Steven DeWolf, president of Wind Tex Energy, L.P., presented county commissioners with information concerning a proposed wind power project in Nolan County. DeWolf said the first project by Wind Tex Energy was the original development of the Camp Springs Wind Energy Center in Scurry County. Construction of the farm began in 2006 and commercial operation is expected to begin in June. When complete, it will consist of 87 General Electric 1.5 megawatt wind turbines. Blattner & Sons was hired as the construction contractor and Invenergy Services LLC serves as project operator.