Some want renewable energy fast; others want to slow down to check on birds.

The environmental community is divided over a deal the state`s General Land Office signed with Wind Energy Systems Technology, or WEST. The deal is to develop 50 wind turbines off the coast of Galveston that would power about 40-thousand homes that wouldn`t rely on fossil fuels. The problem is that Galveston is beneath a critical migratory bird path that links North America to Central and South America wintering grounds.

The University of Texas School of Law is joining with the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium and the Sweetwater law firm of Steakley, Wetsel and Carmichael to organize the first-ever Wind Energy Institute on June 1-2 on the Sweetwater campus of Texas State Technical College West Texas.

Texas now ranks second in wind energy produced each year, trailing only California in the amount of the renewable resource, Texas Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo said in San Angelo this week.

Shifting winds in the energy market will have Austin Energy paying significantly more for its next batch of bluster.

The wind that whips through eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle sends dust dancing through the streets. It rattles doors and windows, unravels neatly pinned hair, and leaves residents stumbling in its path.

West Texas doesn't have the chance to bring in new industry every day.

AMARILLO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2006--Xcel Energy has issued a request for proposals for about 40,500 megawatt-hours of annual renewable energy or renewable energy certificates to be generated from renewable technologies other than wind turbines.

CORPUS CHRISTI - A wind farm for Kenedy County was the focus of a crowded and somewhat heated debate Monday night. Wind power is described as 'clean and cost effective energy', but it's not without its concerns. The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation hosted a forum to allow company officials to meet with the public.

Austin's Cielo Wind Power LP is teaming up with Edison Mission Group of Irvine, Calif., to build a wind power ranch in Potter, Oldham and Randall counties in West Texas.

County Commissioners approved a reinvestment zone and tax abatement for AES Seawest, Inc., following a public hearing on the matter held Wednesday morning.

Plans for a wind energy farm in Kenedy County remain in the preliminary stage as county officials mull a proposed tax abatement for the project.

Environmental advocates and officials are divided about the proposed wind farm, which would be the first of its kind near the Texas Gulf Coast. Many don’t want to speak out against the use of wind energy, which is free of the toxic emissions of traditional electric plants, but they have concerns about the farm’s location and the potential for bird kills along a major migratory flyway.

A small request turned into a big deal at Monday's Potter County Commissioners Court meeting.

The hearing to discuss a tax abatement sought by the developers drew more than 100 people, roughly a quarter of the county's population.

Morris expressed to commissioners that she did not agree with giving a company a tax break. "Give the people of the county a tax break," Morris said.

In June, Austin-based Green Mountain Energy Company – self-described as "one of the nation's largest retail providers of cleaner electricity products," generated from sources such as wind, solar, water, biomass, and natural gas – announced the crosstown relocation of its headquarters from aquifer-sensitive west Austin to an award-winning green office tower downtown, in anticipation of growth and expansion. By the time the move was complete, however, the energy provider had discontinued servicing about 480,000 customers in Ohio and Pennsylvania, laid off 15% of its workforce, and found itself facing suit in federal court. Green Mountain blames regulatory and market obstacles for its woes, but its critics cite an over-reliance on natural gas and a lack of investment in the very clean energy sources the company has made its trademark.