Commissioners voted Monday to clear the way for a series of industrial sized wind generators to be built in the Wolf Ridge area, located northwest of Gainesville. In business, the Commissioners voted 4-0 to accept a roadwork proposal from the Wolf Ridge Wind Project to prepare certain county roads for large trucks to haul parts and equipment for the titan wind turbines. ...David Tenan of the Wolf Ridge Wind Project said with trailers hauling parts for the 125,000-pound nacelles a greater turning radius would be necessary than what is currently available on the mostly gravel country roads.

Ian Krygowski, a representative for enXco returns to Tuesday night's Mower County Planning Commission meeting. Krygowski is enXco's project manager for a wind energy project in Pleasant Valley and Grand Meadow townships. Twice before, Krygowski has been before the planning commission and once he has made a presentation to the Mower County Board of Commissioners. Each time, Krygowski has won over both critics of the wind energy project and county officials with his willingness to re-examine the enXco conditional use permit petitions to satisfy critics' concerns.

Wind energy has become a hot-button issue in Brown County since the Roadrunner Windfarm was proposed last year by Renewable Energy Systems Inc. The proposed $450 million project will involve Brown, Comanche and Mills counties and include 150 turbines. Only 15-20 are expected to be located in southeast Brown County, and construction could begin in 2009. Comanche and Mills counties have approved tax abatement agreements with RES, but Brown County commissioners have yet to approve the request. ... Burns said the taxpayers will bear the burden of the turbines if the industry dries up and blows away. "The legions of losers are the taxpayers," Burns continued. "This is the most important decision Brown County will ever make. Let's tell Germany and England: Don't mess with Brown County."

Mary Wells of FPL Energy said this past week that all the wind turbines will be located in Cooke County, although there will be a few in the Saint Jo School District, which crosses into Cooke County. ...Wells said where wind turbines are not as well known, there are often lots of questions, unlike in West Texas where they are more common. "Very frequently people have questions we can satisfy, but some you can't reconcile. It is not unusual at all to face tough questions. If it is accepted, it can be a welcome experience. Sometimes it can't be resolved, but it is not a reason why we would not build," explained Wells. Saint Jo area residents rose up in protest about the wind turbine project with neighbors in conflict with each other. A citizen's advocacy group was formed and the city of Saint Jo enacted ordinances prohibiting their location in the city limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction. A lawsuit filed by a group of citizens from both counties seeking a temporary injunction to halt the wind farm production is still pending in the 235th District Court. Wells said in that suit an agreement has been reached and both sides are working out the details.

Jasper County first advertised for bids to develop a wind power project in July of 2002. The county received two bids, one from Pecos Renewable Energy (PRE) and one from RES North America. After review and recommendation by the county's attorneys Mark Morgan and Thane Adkins, the court unanimously voted on Oct. 23, 2002, to accept PRE's bid. Five years ago wind energy was a relatively new enterprise to Texans, but in 2006 Texas surpassed California to become the nation's leader in wind capacity. ...If PRE can prove they have met the milestones of the contract, they may co-develop a wind farm with their named collaborator, Suzlon Wind Energy, the fifth-leading wind turbine supplier in the world. Or they can flip their lease and sell to another energy company, in which case Jasper County would receive royalties as development occurs. But unless the contract is terminated and Jasper has an opportunity to seek a new energy partner, PRE has the county's hands tied for the next 25 years (with automatic renewal for 10 more years) with no contractual obligation to produce anything.

Applause filled the Gillespie County Commissioners' Courtroom Thursday after commissioners passed a resolution opposing wind farms in Gillespie County. Signed by Gillespie County Judge Mark Stroeher and all four commissioners, the document states the court's opposition to "the construction and installation of industrial wind farms in Gillespie County and the surrounding Hill Country area." Stroeher said that the Llano City Council had recently passed a similar resolution to the one approved during the meeting, which had been moved up from its originally scheduled date on Christmas Eve.

Planning Board Chairman Jamie Reinhardt acknowledged Tuesday that townspeople have been voicing a "good deal of criticism" about the board's decision to hold its public hearing on the board's proposed wind-turbine bylaw during Thursday night's winter storm. "We asked him to cancel it and he didn't," Selectman Chairman John Tynan said. "It was unprofessional." Reinhardt made no apologies, however, saying he has exerted extra effort to inform all residents about what happened during the meeting. Delaying the hearing, he said, would have posed an inconvenience to the people who did make it to the fire station on Thursday and would have further delayed the process of adopting or rejecting the proposed bylaw. ...A bylaw requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass. "We're determined to present our bylaw and put it to rest," Reinhardt said. "If both fail, we would believe that it is the opinion of the people of Savoy that wind turbines are not desirable in the town."

A massive wind farm project in Gray County is on hold today because County Commissioners decided more information is needed. The wind farm is proposed by T. Boone Pickens, who would like Northern Gray County to be designated as a reinvestment zone so they can apply for a tax abatement. ..."So many people here that have built Gray County and they've paid their taxes, year, after year, after year. I just feel like Mr. Pickens and his wind farm machine, I think he ought to pay his fair share of taxes if he's going to come in here." said Kathleene Greene of Pampa.

Howard County commissioners approved a trio of reinvestment zones necessary to grant tax abatements Monday morning, moving forward with negotiations with several wind energy developers that could lead to an estimated 400 to 500 new turbines being erected in the county. Commissioners met with Terry Wegman, executive director for Moore Development, who is serving as a liaison between the wind energy developers and local taxing entities for the purpose of establishing reinvestment zones, and ultimately, negotiating tax abatements for several proposed projects. The court approved reinvestment zones A, B and C, following a public hearing that drew comments from only a single property owner. ..."Even the smaller developments - the smallest one is 36 megawatts - will be putting up quite a few turbines. I think we're looking at between 400 and 500 turbines at this point, but that's nothing more than a rough estimate."

In a bid to block two large wind energy projects on the South Texas coast, an alliance of environmental groups and landowners is taking aim at the high-voltage transmission line required for the project. The wind farms represent a $1 billion investment in a remote corner of the Kenedy Ranch.

Pickens, a Roberts County rancher and Dallas businessman, created Mesa Energy to build a 4,000-megawatt wind farm in northern Gray County and southern Roberts County. In addition to the wind farm, Mesa plans a 750-megawatt coal-fired plant to supply energy when the wind isn't blowing and a 600-megawatt natural gas-fired plant to handle peak loads......."I'm not having any turbines on my ranch," Pickens said candidly. "I think they're ugly is the reason I won't have any." But he said he has neighbors who've told him that they may be ugly to him, but the turbines look like money to his neighbors.

TXU Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell said Friday they plan to build a massive wind farm in the Panhandle. The companies are not saying how much they will invest, who will own the wind farm and when, exactly, they might start building the project. They're also not saying who will supply the windmills. Here's what they've revealed: Shell WindEnergy Inc. and TXU's Luminant will develop the 3,000 megawatt wind farm in Briscoe County. That equates to about 1,000 wind turbines.

If all goes as planned, Jasper County commissioners will meet in public session in Houston next week with BP (British Petroleum) officials to discuss wind generation in Pecos County. Why Jasper is involved in energy production in far west Texas is a long story.

The state Public Utility Commission opened the way for a big boost in wind power production in Texas on Friday. The commission designated swaths of the state for the construction of new power lines that would carry wind-generated electricity to consumers. The decision serves as a pledge that the state will help build those lines, giving wind power developers the confidence to build turbines in far-flung, windy areas of Texas, according to Mike Aaron, a staff member with Virtus Energy, an Austin renewable energy consulting firm.

Texas is now the number one wind energy state in the country -- producing more power from wind than any other state. Now Texas is also the first to allow wind energy production off-shore -- energy which could not only power our homes and businesses, but also pay for the education of our children. In a small room filled with large maps, the future of Texas energy might be taking shape.

Randall County is inching toward granting tax abatements to a wind energy company. County commissioners approved a reinvestment zone Tuesday that will cover a portion of the southwest corner of Randall County. The reinvestment zone will now allow the county to begin negotiations on exactly what type of tax abatements Chermac Energy Corp. can receive for its 480-megawatt project.

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.

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.

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.