It seems like governments, both large and small are starting to take the jump into alternative energy sources. First there was the small town of Rock Port, Missouri and now Dallas Texas that are taking advantage of the wind.

Rock Port, Missouri is now 100% powered by the wind. The first place in the country. Not only are they energy independent - no nuclear power plants, no oil powered generators but they are actually expected to have extra power. It is estimated that they will use about 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity this year and their new wind power turbines will produce 16 million. Wouldn’t it be nice of every community could say that.

And now Dallas, in the oil rich state of Texas is jumping on board the wind power bandwagon. Texas never does anything small and they are not doing anything different this time. Texas is making an investment of $4.9 billion in power lines that will bring wind generated electricity from west Texas to big cities like Dallas. New jobs are being created, pollution levels lowered and energy costs coming down. Talk about a win, win, win situation.

America is finally taking the oil crises seriously and telling the oil producing nations that we are determined to become independent, just like the entire country of Brazil.

The local and state governments are not the only ones paying attention either. Private industry is beginning to realize that alternative energy sources are the way of the future.

T. Boone Pickens is himself in the oil business and he hopes to see enough wind turbines built to increase the amount of energy produced by wind power from 1% to 20% in the next 10 years.

Not all of the country can produce a lot of wind power. The best places run in a line from Texas to the Canadian boarder and on both coasts, but it is possible for those states to produce enough for their own use and extra to sell to the other states.

So, the next time you are high up in the mountains or down in the prairie states, make a note of the wind. Think of all the power that that wind could be producing if wind turbines were there already. And look to the future when they will be, to the future of less pollution and lower energy costs. Our dependence on oil is not going to disappear overnight, it will be used for quite a while yet, but if there is another oil crisis, we will be more ready than we are now.

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