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Posted on 09/25/2006 1:48:53 PM PDT by Uncledave
Texas is more hospitable than Mass. to wind farms Economy, culture fueling a boom
By Kate Galbraith, Globe Correspondent | September 25, 2006
SWEETWATER, Texas -- Like his father and grandfather before him, Johnny Ussery has always been a cattleman, tending 100 head -- and a few small oil wells -- on his parched, 2,500-acre ranch in the West Texas flatlands. Last January, however, Ussery decided to ``change with the times."
Breaking family tradition, he sold his herd and joined an enterprise that didn't even exist in Texas until 1995: wind energy.
``It took a lot of soul-searching," Ussery said of the decision to place 28 gigantic, three-blade windmills on his pancake-flat piece of earth. On the upside, he said, unlike cows, the turbines are low-maintenance: ``You don't have to worry about whether it rains or not."
Across sparely settled, middle-of-nowhere Nolan County, Ussery is among dozens of ranchers joining an energy boom that has helped Texas surge past California as the new leader in wind power. Long known for its oil and gas riches, Texas now produces enough environmentally friendly wind power to light 600,000 homes, and more wind farms are on the way.
That's in sharp contrast with Massachusetts, where developers have struggled to complete the controversial Cape Wind project, which would put a 130-turbine wind farm off the coast of Nantucket. The project has been before Congress several times over the years -- with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, leading the fight against it.
Kennedy, a recreational sailor whose family has a vacation compound in Hyannis, has said that he supports wind energy as a clean, renewable energy source, but he calls the Cape Wind project unique and worrying.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
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I've been seeing rigs hauling these things down south the last few months. They certainly are big!
Teddy's trying to keep his little backward state as his own playground.
Hah!
Up to 500 feet high or even more.
I'm having a hard time believing this one, considering that Mass is the state that gave us Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Barney Frank.
I understand that President Bush's house in Crawford is heated with solar energy. I wonder how many of John i was in vietnam Kerry's mansions are so eco-friendly?
Texas believes in Capitalism, Massachusettes believes in Marxism. Not much else to say.
In the summer, all the homes in Texas are heated with solar energy. That is the problem.
Roger that
Why the heck did he sell his cows?? I would've thought that windmills and cattle would co-exist nicely.
Texas Hates Birds
Translation.....Mass believes in windfarms and oil wells as long as they are in Texas...
We have a saying down here in Texas.
A man can make a lot of money ranchin' as long as he has a couple of good oil wells on his ranch.
Don't just blame this on Moonbats. Doro Bush Koch is married to Peter Koch of The Oxbow Group which donates heavily to Republicans. They are also against the Cape Wind Project because they own the Gas Fired Power Plant on the South Shore which will be supplied by the NG carried by the Algonquin Pipeline owned by Duke Energy which contributes heavily to Democrats.
Texas is much more hospitable than Mass. Period!
"Translation.....Mass believes in windfarms and oil wells as long as they are in Texas..."
And Texans will be taxed on it to pay for programs in Mass.
You are right about Teddy trying to keep his own backyard as a playground. They like to preach about conserving energy but only the middle class in the fly-over states should be subjected to looking at it.
Walter Cronkite was interviewed over a year ago and he also complained at length about having windmills in Massachusetts - seems it takes away from the ambiance. Another case of do what I say but don't expect me to live by the same rules as the minions.
Thats where he got the money to invest in the big windmills.
When I recently passed through upstate New York I was surprised to see a feild of several hundred windmills. The locals said Hillary fought hard to get them there. I guess that means they didn't vote for her up there?
I don't think that the price he'd get for 100 cows would go very far in buying much in the way of windmills.
OK. You do have to admit that Texas has a lot more wide open lonesome than Taxachussettes.
Come on. All of that state (excuse me... commonwealth) would probably fit comfortably inside of the King Ranch, or damn near. (OK, it won't, but you get the idea)
It's not a cliche that Texas is miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. And they have winds that blow all the damned time in some places at certain times of the year.
Do these rigs co-exist with tornados?
What's the insurance rating for a windmill in tornado alley?
Pretty well, actually. During storm conditions (high winds), the props will be "feathered" and not turning. And given the fact that the individual windmills in a wind farm are widely spaced, a given tornado is unlikely to damage more than a single windmill, if at all.
Are you talking about Infinite Jest?
That was a great book.
Took me 2 months to read it, but that was a great book.
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