Opposition Forming Against Clean Wind Energy

Texas is the largest producer of greenhouse gases in the nation. If Texas was a country, it would be the seventh largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. To make the situation even worse, TXU and other electric producers are trying to get approval to build 17 new coal-burning power plants in Texas.

These facts have combined to convince most Texans that new, renewable and cleaner ways to produce electricity must be found before we poison our state and planet beyond repair. Clean energy became a primary issue in the last governor's race -- so much so that all four major candidates wound up supporting the search for clean and renewable ways to produce electricity.

One of the ways to do this is with wind energy. Texas currently produces about 2600 megawatts of electricity using wind energy. One megawatt is enough to provide power for around 700 homes. Texas is striving to have 5880 megawatts of wind-powered electricity by 2009, and another 5000 megawatts by 2015.

Wind energy is not going to replace all the other sources of power, but it can help the state keep to a minimum the number of polluting power plants using coal. This would be helpful not only in reducing the production of greenhouse gases, but it would be beneficial to the respiratory health of all Texans.

However, it looks like not everyone is convinced of the need for wind energy in Texas. A Houston attorney has now filed two civil suits opposing the building of new wind energy sites -- one in the Abilene area and another in Cooke county just north of the DFW metroplex.

The attorney said, "It used to be they put up wind farms in areas where very few people lived. The only folks affected out in far West Texas were the people putting them on their own property. Now, as they need other places to put them, they've started to move into more populated areas, and they're getting a very different reaction."

It seems that these opponents think the wind farms mar the landscape and could devalue the surrounding property. This is a prime example of "not in my backyard" thinking. These people are perfectly willing to use the electricity generated -- they just don't want the wind-generating towers near their property.

This makes me wonder, would these wind power opponents prefer a pollution-belching coal-burning power plant in their area? Or do they just want ANYTHING that is built to be in someone else's neighborhood?

These people are not wanting to keep the wind towers off their own land. To do that they can just say no to those wanting to build a tower there. No, they want to tell others what they can and cannot do with their own land, even though a single wind tower can produce as much as $10,000 a year in income for the land owner.

We'll have to keep an eye on these two lawsuits. There will not only be property rights decisions made, but they could directly affect the quality of our air in Texas in the future.