TEXAS: The Wild Wild West of Wind Power

[Dover]

For better or worse, wind power still loosely regulated

UT professor to teach wind law class this semester.

By Asher Price

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Wind farms are being built in several parts of Texas, including the Panhandle and the coast. These turbines are near Snyder in West Texas.


Monday, January 14, 2008

If Texas' wealth over the last century came from oil, wind farm developers are banking that a chunk of the state's future prosperity will come from an above-ground resource.

The wide-open feel of the burgeoning industry, with windmills cropping up like wildflowers in the Panhandle, in West Texas, and along the Gulf Coast, harks back to the legal situation in the days of Spindletop.

"With wind law and the wind industry, what's happening legally is about the same place the oil industry was 100 years ago," said Ernest Smith, a University of Texas law professor who will teach a course in wind law this semester. "It's virtually unregulated. People realize there's great value to it, but there's no precedents in case law and very little statutory help."

But as windmills go in the ground, will regulation catch up?

Controversies over wind farms, especially those along the coast, have headed to the courthouse.

In Kenedy County, a motley crew of birders and the King Ranch are challenging two wind farms that they say will lead to the deaths of thousands of migratory birds....>

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/01/14/0114wind.html

..............................................


GE to invest in $350 million Texas wind farm

Facility is scheduled to be completed in December
January 10, 2008
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/01/10/0110wind.html?cxntlid=inform

Denmark Serves As Energy Model for Texas
http://www.statesman.com/shared/content/shared/green/2007-stories/green_denmark.html?cxntlid=inform

[Javaman]

1. Just signed up my home here in Austin. It now runs on 100% wind. :) nt