Wind Energy

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has invested in a wind energy farm in Texas that will generate enough power to light 15% of its Texas operations. The world's largest retailer said Thursday that the Duke Energy Corp. farm was being built in Notrees, Texas, and was to start production in April. The retailer will purchase electricity directly from Duke's Notrees Windpower Project, Duke said. The Bentonville, Ark.-based discount retailer has 360 stores and other facilities in Texas.

While President Obama has made development of cleaner energy sources a priority, an effort is underway to close off a large swath of the Southern California desert to solar and wind energy projects. In a move that could pit usual allies -- environmentalists and the solar and wind industries -- against each other, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is preparing legislation that would permanently put hundreds of thousands of acres of desert land off limits to energy projects.

Each chorus of an old sea chantey begins, "Blow, ye winds of the morning; blow, ye winds, high ho!" That could well be the theme song of the winds generating electricity at the large and growing number of wind farms, perhaps without narrowing it down only to the mornings. The most recent figures from the American Wind Energy Assn., based in Alexandria, Va., show that wind generation of electricity in California last July--90.7 million kilowatt hours--was more than three times the 30.

Like many ranchers facing pressure from developers, Shirley Hindman worries that one day she might have to break up her Nine Mile Ranch, one of the largest spreads in the Walla Walla Valley. "That would make me sick," she says. But now she and her father, Billy, have found another way to protect their 14,000 acres of sagebrush-covered hills and canyonland. The answer has come in the wind--something "we have plenty of," she says. And something also in growing demand. Soon the ridgelines across U.

It seems there is a way to get conservatives to support government handouts: Hand them out to conservatives. As Times staff writers Alana Semuels aud Seema Mehta reported, Mitt Romney is getting himself into trouble with Republican voters in swing states such as Iowa by supporting a bedrock Republican principle: He wants to end the production tax credit for wind energy and force power producers to compete on an even playing field with no...

He spent much of his life drilling for oil, taking over other companies and using his vast wealth to fund Republicans. Now, T. Boone Pickens champions wind energy, has a Facebook profile and passes the time with grateful Democrats. On Tuesday, the legendary oil tycoon made his Capitol Hill debut to promote his new cause: using American wind to alleviate the nation's energy crisis and wean itself from dependency on foreign oil.

In an effort to tap one of the high desert's most abundant resources, Palmdale is allowing large shopping centers and business parks to install small wind turbines in their parking lots to save on electricity costs. Civic leaders in the Antelope Valley have taken a variety of steps in recent years to harness and adapt to the region's vast supplies of sun and wind. In Lancaster, hundreds of acres of desert landscape will be used for a huge bed of solar-thermal panels. Both Palmdale and Lancaster have taken steps to ban new lawns to help conserve water.

DES MOINES - It's an overriding conservative principle: Scale back government interference and let businesses survive or fail on their merits. But standing by that principle may hurt Mitt Romney in Iowa, a hotly contested swing state that could provide a crucial six electoral college votes in November. Romney recently upset many conservatives here by saying he would end a government tax credit that helps subsidize a burgeoning wind industry in the state. Some of them - farmers who earn tens of thousands of dollars a year for having wind turbines on their property - say they won't vote for Romney because of his wind position.

One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah. But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in rural Kern County to learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment.