About 150 landowners and concerned residents met in Harper Thursday to discuss possible construction of a private electric transmission line through Gillespie County. "We basically wanted to get together and pool our information," Martha Stevens, who helped organize the meeting, said. "We live in an awfully pretty part of Texas, and there are important questions we need to ask." Landowners are concerned, Ms. Stevens said, that construction of power lines will diminish property values and harm the Hill Country's appeal to tourists.

Wind Energy Systems Technology, headquatered in New Iberia, recently ad-dressed the Louisiana Public Service Commission regarding its desire to expand wind-gathering operations to the Louisiana Coast. Harold Schoeffler, of Lafayette and W.E.S.T. partner , said the group left the meeting with more questions then answers. ...Schoeffler said the Public Service Commission has transferred renewable energy to the state Department of Natural Resources.

Kerr County may soon play a part in transmitting wind energy from West Texas and the Panhandle to other parts of the state. But what it will take to transport the "green" energy may have some Hill Country residents seeing red. Four companies have shown interest in building a large, double circuit 345-kilovolt transmission line for the Public Utility Commission of Texas project. ... According to Robert Weatherford, president of Save Our Scenic Hill Country Environment Inc., another transmission line might be in the works.

Dale Rankin, one of the landowners who claimed FPL Energy created a nuisance by erecting ugly and noisy wind turbines at the company's Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, said the group's attorneys have decided an appeal is in order. Rankin said that in his group's opinion, the appeals court erred. "Politics and the judicial world are not supposed to mix, and they obviously do," Rankin said, adding that there's "too much political pressure" on the appeals court to maintain the status quo and not get in the way of the wind turbine industry.

Wind turbines are generating more than electricity in Coke County. They're also producing significantly more tax dollars for the Robert Lee Independent School District. And that's the problem. Under the state's "Robin Hood" school funding formula that takes from more affluent and gives to less affluent districts, Robert Lee ISD could end up benefiting little from the cash windfall. ...Under the present system, the state "recaptures" funds from property-wealthy districts and uses them to assist with financing public education in school districts deemed property poor.

Patricia LaPoint said she wasn't surprised Thursday when an appeals court sided with the wind industry and upheld a lower court ruling that people can't sue simply because they hate the way wind turbines look or sound. "It's not surprising given the politics of wind energy in the state of Texas," said LaPoint, one of a group of rural Taylor County landowners who sued and claimed FPL Energy created a public nuisance by erecting unpleasant-looking and noisy wind turbines at the company's Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center. LaPoint's group claimed noisy turbines lowered their property values and stamped out their picturesque views.

Before the 2006 trial, the judge wouldn't let plaintiffs argue that the towering turbines were a nuisance based on their blinking lights or how they looked. After the two-week trial in which noise levels and land values were discussed, jurors ruled in favor of FPL Energy. In a ruling issued Thursday, the 11th Court of Appeals said the trial judge did not err because Texas law "does not provide a nuisance action for aesthetical impact." But the appeals court seemed sympathetic to landowners.

Young County commissioners will likely seek a 60-40 split on tax proceeds if they approve an abatement request from British Petroleum for a windmill energy farm in northern Young County. While meeting with attorney Alan Carmichael on Monday, commissioners discussed a way to get the most money for the county without derailing the proposed wind farm. Under the proposal from BP, the county would abate 75 percent of the taxes the first two years and see the figures drop through the 10-year abatement. ..."I want it to be competitive, but keep in mind this is British Petroleum, one of the 25 largest companies in the world, and they don't need a heck of a lot of help from us," Carmichael said. "But we do want this project to be completed."

Folks in several nearby towns, about 100 miles southwest of Dallas, are fighting to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them. ...They say the companies are swooping in -- even into areas that aren't as windy -- because federal tax credits for wind developers expire at year's end unless Congress extends the subsidy. Opponents also are holding meetings and erecting yard signs protesting turbines, disputing that wind energy works at all. ...They say that unreliability isn't worth sacrificing their scenic vistas and high property values.

Opinions from those in attendance were wide ranging. Many said although they did not support wind turbines coming to Erath County, they wondered if they were not necessary evils if the United States was to gain energy independence. Stokes said Texas is currently first in the nation for wind energy production. Texas will reach full capacity in about five years - even without a single wind turbine in Erath. Others also wondered what would happen to their property rights neighbors signed a lease and they did not. Could companies use eminent domain to take possession of the land and put up a wind turbine? Attorney J. Mac Rust said companies could not claim eminent domain under those conditions. However, a company could claim eminent domain to run a transmission wire across land.

About 140 people got another look at the coming world of wind power Friday. Birds and bats were major topics, but the basic message was that there needs to be more study of the impact of wind farms and turbines. "We're kind of finding our way along with the industry," Kathy Boydston, a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told the gathering at the Ambassador Hotel in Amarillo. Experts are trying to find ways to deter birds and bats from hitting turbines, but the lack of information on how many fall victim and how it happens is lacking.

An environmental group may try to push the federal government to file a lawsuit against the state, arguing that it failed to stop developers from building a wind farm in Kenedy County, an attorney said Friday. Jim Blackburn, a Houston attorney who represents the Coastal Habitat Alliance, said the group had not decided whether it will appeal a judge's decision to dismiss a lawsuit against Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, wind developers PPM Energy and Babcock & Brown and the Public Utility Commission.

One native bird in the area may soon be added to the endangered species list. And it could have a big impact on future wind farm development in the Panhandle. There are only a few lesser prairie chickens left in Texas. And because of huge wind farms proposed in the Panhandle, their population is in limbo. Today at the Panhandle Wind and Wildlife Conference here in Amarillo, wildlife experts discussed the impact wind turbines and wind farms have on animals, both in the air and on the ground.

Babcock & Brown said that a federal court in Texas dismissed a lawsuit, clearing a path for the company to continue its plans for a wind farm on the Texas Gulf Coast. The Coastal Habitat Alliance filed suits related to the construction of two separate wind energy generation facilities, including the Babcock & Brown facility, in December 2007. The federal suit challenged the state's decision to allow the developments to be built without required environmental review and public comment and sought possible injunction against the Texas Land Commissioner, the commission and the developers of the two wind farms, PPM Energy and Babcock and Brown.

A federal judge in Austin dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prevent further construction of two Kenedy County wind farm projects. The suit was filed in December by the Coastal Habitat Alliance, a nine-member environmental group that includes King Ranch, claiming the projects would cause irrevocable damage to the environment and birds. The alliance also filed a suit in state court that was dismissed earlier this year. The wind farm projects, by Australian-based Babcock and Brown Ltd. and Oregon-based Iberdrola Renewables, formerly PPM Energy, continued with site preparation and initial construction and erection of wind turbines

As North Texans sweltered through another 100-degree-plus day, the windmills around Sweetwater turned lazily in the West Texas breeze, ...It's not much - barely 1 percent of the peak electricity demand Monday for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the transmission grid for about 75 percent of the state. But it's about what is expected from the state's wind-power industry, by far the nation's largest, during the dog days of summer, when temperatures climb but wind speeds dip on the West Texas plains. "In general, wind's peak energy does not coincide with peak electricity demand. It's not a good match," said Andy Swift, director of the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Nance Ranch has been home to everything from cattle to crops, but it could also be hosting wind turbines soon. The Texas A&M University System's board of regents in College Station voted Friday to allow West Texas A&M University to give wind developer Higher Power Energy an option to lease the ranch for a wind farm. Higher Power was one of two companies that responded to the school's request for proposals. WT's Alternative Energy Institute helped evaluate the responses to meet the school's expectations.

Jon Bennett, a public relations spokesman for TXU Energy praised the wind energy industry here this week where tall white wind turbines line the horizon. The problem, he said, is that there has to be a reliable mix of power. "One thing that's not very popular is to stand in front of a wind generating group and say wind is not the only solution," Bennett said. "There are other solutions out there that need to be developed." How else, he asked, can power be sustained when the wind falls off?

The Texas Public Utilities Commission took no action Thursday on a final order intended to say how much wind power can come from special zones, which were set up to speed the building of transmission lines. "The staff is still working on the final language for the order," said Terry Hadley, the commission's spokesman. "They expect that no later than the next meeting on Aug. 14." The preliminary order the staff is fleshing out calls for 18,000 megawatts of wind power

A lawsuit brought against the Taylor County Commissioners Court in April for granting what the plaintiff claims are illegal tax abatements to wind farms in the county was dropped Thursday with little fanfare. Tuscola resident Dale Rankin, an opponent of wind energy, filed the lawsuit in April alleging that wind energy equipment is not eligible for tax abatements under the state tax code. Rankin said he decided to "nonsuit," or essentially drop, the lawsuit because of what he called "procedural issues." However, he said he plans to refile the lawsuit.