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A mighty wind
Jon Kelly22 Sep 08, 10:44 GMT
BBC


Think of Texas and you think of oil. I always did, anyway - Dallas has a lot to answer for. I was slightly disappointed on crossing the state border not to spot any cigar-chomping tycoons in Stetsons and cowboy boots. What I did see, however, might come as a surprise to those who associate George W Bush's backyard with black gold. The skyline, I noticed, was dotted with wind turbines. This didn't look like JR Ewing country to me.

Contrary to its gas-guzzling reputation, however, the Lone Star State can stake a claim to be wind power capital of America. Some 3% of its electricity already is generated in this way, a figure that is certain to rise as it pushes ahead with a massive programme of expansion. What's even more interesting about its status as a powerhouse for green energy is that it has been pioneered not by environmentalists, but by a very Texan energy baron. Up in Pampa, oil billionaire T Boone Pickens Jnr is spending $10bn building 2,700 wind turbines across 200,000 acres of panhandle. Pickens is a fervent Republican who funded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, widely credited with securing Bush's re-election during the 2004 presidential campaign.

But I wanted to visit the real boomtown for wind power in Texas: Sweetwater, a small community of 11,000 which will have over 1,500 turbines spinning around its surrounding countryside by 2009. I went to see Robert and Nadene Petty, both 67, on the ranch bought by Robert's father in 1928. As well producing cattle, cotton and wheat, their family's 13,000 acres forms part of the Sweetwater wind farm. They're paid to host 40 turbines on their property, as part of a deal which has helped keep many farms in West Texas in business.

Robert was no touchy-feely eco-warrior but a typical Texan Republican who told me he didn't care for Barack Obama's "liberal Democratic ideas". Pump-jacks bobbed for oil across his land underneath the windmills. But he was proud that he was doing his bit to save the planet. "I reckon farmers and ranchers were the first environmentalists," he said. "It's our job to preserve the land."

There had been some local opposition, Nadene admitted, when the first turbines went up in 2006. But almost everyone in the area was now behind them, she said, because they were generating so much cash. "Plus, our cows love the windmills," she laughed. "They lie down in their shadows in a big long line."

I wandered into Sweetwater to see if I could find any opposition to the turbines. Not a single person I encountered had a word to say against them. Had I been back in Scotland, I knew, I would have encountered a very different reaction. One reason for this might be that wind has brought more than 1,000 much-needed jobs to this area.

I met 22-year-old Marina Ortega, who was studying to be a turbine technician at Texas State Technical College in Sweetwater. She told me that she hoped she had found herself steady employment for life.

"I wanted to take this course because wind power is the future," she said. "If you're looking for a career that will last you 20, 30 years, this looks a pretty safe bet."

It was starting to make sense to me now.

Before I left town, Sweetwater's mayor Greg Wortham - a former New York attorney who returned to Sweetwater to set up the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium - told me that Texans' natural pragmatism had convinced them that renewables were the way forward.

"People in Massachusetts and Vermont talk about green this and green that," he said. "But when it comes to actually building wind farms, they don't want to spoil their scenery. We just like to get things done. Because of the oil, people understand energy around here. If I could vote for T Boone Pickens and Al Gore on the same ticket, I would."

It's not a hook-up I would anticipate any time soon. But it sounds like it would be a winner in Texas.