My concern was more specific to the wind power industry and that bottle necks or unavoidably long construction times might occur in specific specialist areas - e.g. turbine manufacture, critical smart grid components, completion of new power lines - which would constrain the ability of the industry to produce a major expansion of wind capacity in the next 2 years.
Obviously any such under-capacity would be as a direct consequence of the "stop-go" regulatory and financial regime for wind power identified by Jerome above and the chronic lack of vision of the Bush regime.
The irony is that the richest wind power resources often seem to be in Republican States. Now that the DEMS have abandoned their 50 state electoral strategy perhaps they could inaugurate a 50 state energy strategy which might be just as good at harvesting votes in red areas in due course! notes from no w here
And there is definitely a tension between the western style of "conservatism" and the southern style of "conservatism" that can be most usefullly wedged if there is some good old fashioned parochial interests going along with it. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Amarillo to Denver: 574 km Amarillo to Houston: 855 km
Amarillo is in the middle of the pink area on the wind map below.
http://www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/re_wind-transmission.htm
special corridors transmitting wind in Texas are already under construction planning. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
Texas gets most of its power from natural gas, but is actively working to build a substantial wind infrastructure.
