A proposed wind farm in northern Young County took a major step toward reality Monday when commissioners voted to approve a tax abatement plan for British Petroleum. After more than two hours of negotiations between BP and representatives from Young and Archer counties, Young County legal counsel Alan Carmichael announced an agreement had been reached.

When investor Boone Pickens put a hold on a huge wind power project in the Texas Panhandle that he had announced in the spring, he wasn't alone. A number of wind power developers and researchers say the ongoing credit crisis, together with transmission congestion in West Texas and falling natural gas prices, will slow the state's breakneck expansion of wind capacity. ...But there also is a peculiar wrinkle in wind power's finance that makes the current environment doubly challenging. "Most wind projects in the U.S. are funded by investors with an appetite for tax benefits," said David Groberg, vice president of Invenergy Wind, a Chicago-based company with 690 megawatts of wind capacity in Texas.

Garland is the latest North Texas city considering a zoning ordinance aimed at regulating wind energy devices that generate power for residential use. The measure is on Tuesday's council agenda. Other cities, including Grand Prairie, Waxahachie and Oak Point, already have such ordinances. Residential wind energy devices are rare in urban areas and may be too expensive or impractical for many homeowners. But city officials say they want to make sure rules are in place for the day when wind energy devices become more commonplace.

Gillespie County Commissioners adopted a resolution opposing the development of transmission line routes other than the approved Public Utility Commission (PUC) plan Monday morning during their regular meeting. Al Weinzierl, steering committee member for an informal group of Harper citizens opposed to the construction of private transmission lines, presented the resolution to the court. Landowners in Harper were first contacted in late July by Hilliard Energy, a Midland-based company trying to negotiate 180-foot land easements on behalf of Florida Power and Light (FPL) Energy for a private transmission line separate from the approved PUC line.

The major problem with wind as a power source is that it doesn't blow all the time. To remedy that, Texas is spending $30 million a year to bolster its back-up power, in a change to the electricity grid that began on Nov. 1. ...

A former Public Utility Commission chairman discussed the growth of wind power in Texas during an annual meeting of Save Our Scenic Hill Country Environment held yesterday in Fredericksburg. ...The local group, which held their annual meeting yesterday at the Central Texas Electrical Co-op building, opposes construction of wind turbines and private transmission lines in the Hill Country.

Falling energy prices have forced billionaire oilman and investor T. Boone Pickens to trim spending on his renewable energy campaign and put his West Texas wind farm project on hold. When Pickens launched his plan this summer to boost the use of wind and natural gas to ease American dependence on foreign oil, gasoline prices were at a record $4.11 a gallon and oil prices were at $147 a barrel.

Petitions asking local citizens to oppose private power line construction are being collected this week by volunteers in six Hill Country counties. "We're going to try to collect as many signatures as we can by Nov. 15; then we will hand deliver the petitions to the powers that be in Austin," Suzy Stewart who has helped organize the petition drive, said. Ms. Stewart is working with a Harper-based steering committee that held a public meeting Thursday to organize opposition to possible power line construction by Florida Power and Light Energy.

A falling section of a lattice tower used for wind measurements caused the death of a contract worker on Sunday at a Kenedy County wind farm, his employer said Tuesday. Matthew Peterson, a 25-year-old test technician, died while working at Babcock and Brown Ltd.'s Gulf Winds project ...The Kenedy County Sheriff's Office was called to the wind farm at about 6 p.m. on Sunday. Peterson, employed out of GEC's Seattle office, was working with another man when the injury occurred, Richardsen said. The other man was not injured, he added.

Although T. Boone Pickens has become somewhat of a celebrity as of late - giving speeches and appearing on national television in interviews and commercials - the Oklahoma native is finding falling energy prices are making it difficult for his eponymous Pickens Plan to gain traction. Furthermore, a host of other outside factors have cropped up to make the Texas oilman's push for renewable energy increasingly difficult ...Depressed fuel prices, while easier on consumers' wallets, hinder efforts to persuade companies and individuals to invest in renewable energy resources, especially when combined with a shortage of discretionary cash.

Opposition continues to grow against a high-powered transmission line proposed to run through parts of Gillespie and Kerr counties. A steering committee in Harper and other concerned citizens opposing the private transmission lines have met several times in the past few months and are encouraging landowners to resist leasing utility easements. ...Hilliard Energy is attempting to acquire a series of contiguous 180-foot utility easements for Florida Power and Light Energy to build a private 345 kilovolt line from Taylor County to Comfort.

T. Boone Pickens' $10 billion wind farm - the cornerstone of his plan to build thousands of wind turbines from Texas to Canada - is about to be downsized because the oil tycoon can't raise money in the current credit crunch, the billionaire confirmed to the Observer. ...Asked about his plans to build a giant wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, Pickens said: "I've started it, but let's don't go into that, my project is getting ready to get downsized pretty quick. "You can't get financing," he said. "But that will all come back."

According to wind developer FPL, wind conditions over the 3rd financial quarter were the least productive in the last 3 decades in the Great Plains -- go figure. Over the quarter, wind power generation came in 38% below expected totals, down 47% in September alone.

A deflating economy has taken the wind out of a massive Panhandle alternative energy project. Tight lending stalled a $2 billion wind farm project headed by billionaire oilman and alternative power proponent T. Boone Pickens. Pickens' BP Capital delayed work on a state permit to build 170 miles of transmission lines carrying enough wind energy to power 300,000 homes.

A wind tower manufacturing company, facing construction costs that were significantly higher than expected, received a shot in the arm Tuesday. Members of the Development Corporation of Abilene voted to approve Tower Tech Systems Inc.'s request for additional money -- up to $700,000 more -- to help cover nearly $7 million in unanticipated building costs.

Texas consumers and taxpayers could pay more than $2.2 billion a year in subsidies and higher transmission costs to take advantage of the state's abundant wind-generation resources, a free-market research group said on Tuesday. The state's current push to accelerate use of wind-generated electricity is "costing, not saving, Texans billions of dollars," said Bill Peacock, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom. ...By 2025, the study said the price tag could total $60 billion as Texas reaches 10,000 megawatts of wind capacity.

Higher than expected construction costs has a wind-tower manufacturing company asking for more money -- $700,000, to be exact -- from the city of Abilene's economic development arm. According to Development Corporation of Abilene records, Tower Tech Systems, Inc., now estimate construction and equipment costs will reach $27 million, or about $7 million more as was estimated in DCOA's original assistance package.

Wind power developer Higher Perpetual Energy and turbine manufacturer DeWind are on their way to spending about $1.2 billion to boost wind energy in the Panhandle. The plan is for a total of 310 turbines across the region in three years. The pair are finishing two small wind farms, with two larger ones on the drawing board. "The small ones will be very profitable," said David Tatton, president of Higher Perpetual Energy. "But they are also test projects for the teams working together."

Young County commissioners will continue to discuss a potential wind farm in northern Young County during a regular meeting of commissioners court at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the county courthouse.