By Lucy Chubb Texas is making a concerted move toward renewable energy, with wind power as its mainsail. Pictured here is a West Texas wind farm near Fort Davis, Texas. Until Los Angeles recently reclaimed the dishonor, Houston, Texas was most polluted city in the United States. Buffeted by criticism for its environmental track record, Texas is beginning to see the light of renewable energy, according to the American Wind Energy Association. AWEA, an organization that promotes wind power around the world, issued a release Thursday championing the state for taking the bull by the horns with an ambitious program now ahead of schedule to produce electricity from renewable energy sources.
Wind power is an important part of the equation.
The state has several major projects in the works. This statute, approved by the Texas legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bush in 1999, requires that the state's utilities install or contract to buy power from 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy generating capacity by Jan. 1, 2009. This is equivalent to about 3 percent of the state's electricity production, or enough to power approximately 400,000 households. There are penalties for those who don't perform. The requirements for utilities mandated by the renewable energy legislation are more stringent than those of any other state.