[Roughneck]

>>Wind power is a darned silly idea<<

I a lot of places, sure. Out here in West Texas, the wind is always blowing, nothing but desert grasslands, and the developement of wind farms...good investment unless the environits wourk their way out here and jabber-jaw about some grackle gettin' hurt...

[RightWhale]

I toyed with windpower here, put up a big windvane and propeller to see what to expect. It turned this way and that, and sometimes the propeller would turn over lazily. You want about 7 knots steady to get anything at all, and we get about 2 most of the time. There are times in the winter when the air won't move for weeks at a time, maybe just drift a few feet this way and that. If there were 20-30 knots regularly, I would set up a couple shrouded fans and go for it, but it loks like fossil fuel plants is the only practical thing. Nuclear is out for political reasons.

[tbpiper]

Out here in West Texas, the wind is always blowing,

I remember in Amarillo, 20mph was considered 'calm'.

[oyez]

The last time is was in Texas I noticed a particular kind of black bird that followed other birds around and when they found food the larger black birds moved in to steal what the other birds had worked so hard to find. Does that sound familiar to today's politics?