BigBendHiker

While traveling up to Lubbock on Friday (and back to Helotes today), we saw the huge wind electricity farms around Sweetwater. The number of wind turbines and the number being installed is just incredible. It also made me think of T Boone Picken's plan (see link, below) in which he is putting his money where his mouth is. One other thing it spurred us to do -- we signed up for CPS Energy Windtricity program to have 50% of our electricity come from wind. We have been a big proponent of conservation and renewable energy...and figured it was time we put our money where our mouth is...

BBH



PickensPlan

Choderus

I saw this on the way to Balmorhea State Park last month. On the way back we took US-277 from San Angelo to Abilene, where there are many many more. I'm sorry, but seeing 10-20 turbines on a distant mesa looks neat, but 100 of them on both sides of the road as far as you can see is just U-G-L-Y! "Lady Bird" Johnson thankfully is spared from such a sight. I highly doubt after all the work she did that she'd appreciate the way the Texas horizon looks in places now.

JohnK

Ya' just have to look at the big picture. Which is worse, spoiling the natural beauty of a few dozen, or hundreds of mesas with wind turbines, or the cascade of environmental fallout that follows from increasing carbon emissions resulting in global warming and the continued hemorrhage of our wealth to nations hostile to our freedoms and way of life, due to our dependence on their oil?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big proponent of preserving our natural places and their timeless beauty. I love west Texas and go out to the Guadalupe Mountains every chance I get to go backpacking, but I have come to view all of those wind turbines out there with much esteem. Finally an effort to produce truly clean energy and live in harmony with our world! I would much prefer to see thousands of wind turbines out in the desert than more smokestacks and tailpipes spewing CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere and the petrochemical industry dumping ever increasing pollutants into our oceans and waterways.

Don't believe the propaganda about "clean coal". That's practically an oxymoron. We're a long way from truly being able to burn coal and sequester the emitted CO2 in an efficient and cost-effective manner, and nuclear still suffers from the lack of a permanent solution for the storage of radioactive waste. Solar, geothermal, hydroelectric (including ocean wave energy) can all satisfy portions of our energy needs. Hydrogen/fuel cells are a decade or two from practicality, and Obama is right on with his espousing more efficient use of what we have, including things as simple as tire inflation pressures.

T. Boone Pickens is dead right and our elected officials in D.C. have been catering to the corporate elite and ignoring the long-term best interests of "we the people".

Sorry for the rant! It just really irks me that the so-called "leader of the free world" is so far behind the power curve on this issue due to corporate greed and our politicians' willingness to facilitate that greed at our expense. The "free market" has not served the best interests of the citizenry of the U.S.A. or of the environment in the case of our energy needs and independence.

JohnK

Choderus

Well if my electricity bill wasn't what it was last month I might be more understanding.

BigBendHiker

The other piece that is frequently overlooked in regards coal is the number of coal mining accidents that occur with injuries and fatalities. Coal is not clean, nor is mining it safe...


BBH

Choderus

Erath County residents band together to fight wind turbines

Apparently I am not the only one who feels the way I do about these eyesores.