Can't say enough about cans

All hail the mighty can

U.S. Can Manufacturers Institute is celebrating the birthday of the can this year – really.

They get a little weird about it, but they seem sincere.

“The history of the can is literally a history of western civilization,” their Web site proclaims.

There is a lot of money involved, Americans use 130 billion cans a year creating an $8 billion industry, according to the institute.

But then they fly away again.

“Because we have come to rely so much on the convenience and easy familiarity of canned products, almost imperceptibly present in every part of life, we are the 'tin can civilization.' ”

Really.

The history is interesting. 1796 Napoleon’s troops were starving so he started a contest, according to the Web site. A Parisian tried for 15 years before preserving food by partially cooking it and sealing it in bottles with cork stoppers using much the same technique as today’s home preservers. He won the prize in 1810.

The same year, an Englishman won a patent for preserving food in a variety of containers, including iron coated with tin to avoid rust and corrosion, according to the Web site.

Is that a clone in your mouth?

Both sides of the debate over selling meat or milk from animals with clones in their bloodlines is are in a tizzy.

Seems the Food Standards Agency in Britain has confirmed meat from a bull that originated as an embryo of a cloned cow got into the food chain a year ago. That would be against the law because it should have been labeled a "novel food" to be sold legally, reports meatprocess.com
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority have no problem with cloned meat.

Also, the FSA has traced an offspring from the same family line to a dairy but hasn't confirmed its milk is going into the food supply. Let's see, if the dairy is feeding and caring for this cow, where do you think the milk is likely going?

Do you care if that happens around here? How would you know?

Just one more bite

Wasn't eating our way through Santa Fe enough?

My wife, Karen, and I recently took an all-too-short trip to that city recently, and, of course, the first stop was a restaurant. The Shed makes basic New Mexican, but so good. Of course, the raspberry soup wasn't traditional, but so what?

Anyway, several days and more than several restaurants later (Check out the fairly new Restaurant Martin opened by Martin Rios, formerly of Inn of the Anasazi), it was about time to leave.

But wait, there's more. Trader Joes, Whole Foods, the fabulous farmer's market and several hundred dollars later, it's time to hit the highway. We were stocked with everything from dried tart cherries to several containers of unique olives and pickled peppers from the olive bar.

Then comes the sad part. It only lasts so long. Last night was the end of the Mario Batali pasta sauce. Can't get it here, so I guess that's that.

Do you ever go grocery shopping while on vacation. Is that wrong?

It's so stimulating!

It's almost time to do your duty to pump up the economy while greening your home.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs is quite excited about the approaching reservation period for the cash-for-clunkers home appliance program. Check it out, a special Web page that is ever-growing.

She's positively breathless about the opportunity, as evidenced by the countdown clock on the page.

Really, the motivation behind the drive is probably pure, but can't they find better writers to promote a $23 million program? How snappy is "Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program," the federal program or "Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate Program," here in our part of the world?

The idea is to spend federal stimulus money on rebates to consumers who replace their aging, but functioning, dishwasher, water heater, central air, clothes washer, refrigerator, etc with new, energy efficient models that are ENERGY STAR® or CEE qualified?

The comptroller's office is still working out the details, but they'll start taking reservations April 5, at a time to be announced and the buying begins April 16 for a limited time. Don't jump the gun in your enthusiasm or you'll lose out on your rebate. There will be a recycling aspect that is less than clear, but I'm sure it will be more so soon. It will include a $75 bonus rebate for recycling your clunker.

The comptroller's office is so sure this will have buyers buzzing, it's establishing a waiting list for when the rebates are all reserved.

They're really stimulated.

Now spend - after April 16.

Another seed sprouts

Linda Lloyd, project manager at Mariposa ecoVillage on the west edge of Amarillo, was happy to be in the cold wind today. Predictions of snow had her worried, but the weather stayed dry so it was time to get busy.

Workers were pouring concrete from a mast high above what will become her house in the development meant to show off sustainable living. For example, her abode will be totally powered by solar panels and will have no water well.

"I won't be paying Xcel (Energy) anything," she said.

The water will come from harvesting rain.

The home is dug into a 12-foot cliff facing south to collect the warmth of the sun during winter months. The walls will have six inches of concrete lined on both sides with two and a half inches of foam.

The living area is about 800 square feet, topped with 300 square feet of office/studio space.

This is the first home at Mariposa. The hospitality center is up, made of compressed dirt blocks. And work to plaster it and complete the pressed earth floors will begin soon.

"I'm on specialist at that," Lloyd said.

Another first happened within the past few days as Mariposa started taking reservations for single-family home lots. There are 17 on offer. They measure about one acre and go for from $20,000 to $25,000.

"You're so fat"

"Your shoes don't fit on your feet"

I must be such a geek. Data brings on music.

Those lyrics, from Robert Palmer's "Trouble" (notably also done by Lowell George), got in my head while looking at some fascinating data from the USDA.

The Economic Research Service maintains historical numbers of available food per capita in the U.S. Some of the stats go back to 1909. How do they do that?

Sure, the Palmer lyrics have to do with a depressed person, "Your car wouldn't start so started to eat your heart out," who has nothing but bad luck. But what I saw today on the Web said fresh and processed vegetable consumption stayed about the same at 336 pounds in 1970 compared to 392 pounds in 2008, but natural cheese went from 11 pounds per person in 1970 to 32 pounds in 2008. That's a lot of cheese burgers, smothered burritos or something.

Anyway, even with a grain, or shake, of salt, it's pretty interesting to see so here's some more.

Not a big surprise bottled water went from 1.6 gallons in 1976 to 28 gallons in 2008. But look at meat consumption per person on a boneless basis. Beef was at 51 pounds in 1909 and 61 pounds in 2008. Then here comes chicken from 10 pounds to 59 pounds.

An interesting side note is the measure of the total meat consumption of beef, pork and chicken started at 102 in 1909 to end at 166 in 2008. But in the 30's during the Depression, consumption dipped for several years, getting as low as 75 pounds in 1935.

But most importantly? Mushrooms (not the fun ones). We ate about two pounds per person in 1969 but seven pounds in 2008.

What's up with that?

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

What a classic movie line, especially coming from a wild-eyed Robert Duvall.
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning... Smells like, victory."

It got him that beach in Vietnam to surf in "Apocalypse Now" and might be what people downstate need for their pesky fire ants instead of club soda.

Texas AgriLife Extension bug specialists recently had to readdress the Internet rumor about using club soda to kill fire ants. They politely called it “erroneous pest control advice.” But how can something environmentally friendly be bad.

Erroneous advice indeed.

That’s an understatement of Biblical proportions. I used to have to deal with those devilish ants in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. They killed just-born calves and fawns, they made grown men jump into swimming pools hollering like little girls.

Just pour two cups of club soda on a fire ant mound and no more problem, according to the "advice." All that would do is make the little red monsters mad.

“According to the message, the carbon dioxide in the soda is supposed to displace the oxygen and suffocate the ants, including the queen, killing the entire colony within about 48 hours,” an AgriLife news release said. “It also notes that club soda leaves no toxic residue, does not contaminate ground water and will not 'indiscriminently' kill other insects or harm pets.”

“Impressive bubbling action” from the club soda is about all you’ll get - if you're lucky.

Doesn't something that can do this deserve a little napalm?

We don't need no stinkin' green badges

Big businesses appear to be having second thoughts about whether green is their color, and the state of Texas is going to court against the EPA butting into our state business.

Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, just had a pr firm send out an e-mailed comment from him about BP America, Conoco Phillips and Caterpillar dropping out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

I don't know that he's right, but at least the Twitter world is abuzz with the "news."

Anyway, Myron's take is this on the big businesses.

They “are recognizing that cap-and-trade legislation is dead in the U. S. Congress and that global warming alarmism is collapsing rapidly. We hope that other major corporations will soon see the light and drop their support for cap-and-trade and other energy-rationing legislation,” Ebell said.

Not being tied into an industry mouthpiece group like Ebell, I can’t swear by all that, but the hits keep coming.

According to another industry group, the CLEAR Act that advocates a cap and dividend program in which greenhouse gasses are controlled but there’s no trading of carbon credits in a marketplace that could involve speculation by those Wall Street types is generating a huge buzz of lobbying in Washington.

Really? I wouldn’t have dreamed.

And then there’s the EPA opposition by the state of Texas. The good governor, attorney general and ag commissioner announced today they will lay siege on the U.S. Court of Appeals to challenge the EPA finding that greenhouse gasses are a danger, and we need federal regulations to curb them.

Of course, Texas’ argument is the same as the industry groups’ – money matters more. (Let the kids fend for themselves. We’ve got an empire to defend.)

Rick Perry, according to a news release, said this: “The EPA’s misguided plan paints a big target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers and the hundreds of thousands of Texans they employ. This legal action is being taken to protect the Texas economy and the jobs that go with it, as well as defend Texas’ freedom to continue our successful environmental strategies free from federal overreach.”

Besides, Perry doesn't look good in green. He's more of a red-white-and-blue man.

But to be fair, the Texans at least offer a compromise to “just say no.” They want to continue developing alternative energy production with tax credits to multi-national companies.

Seems this could be another momentum switch as the carbon-laden winds blow another direction. Doesn’t mean we will see a resolution, just a shift in who thinks they’re winning the hearts and minds.

There’s billions of dollars involved, so the dancers should continue to swirl and twirl.

Go ahead and freak

Everybody else is. "OMG snow's coming!"

The weather jockeys are all out of breath about it. Predicting this and that. Of course there's the complication that they really don't know for sure what's going to happen. Maybe that's why they're covering their bets in vagueness. But for a change they have something to talk about.

My mom's out of breath because she lives in the country where electricity and phones get knocked fairly frequently. (Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to be an SPS guy messing with electricity in a blizzard.) So my wife and I took her a giant cooler of water, an extra lantern and some reading material.

My wife's out of breath to the extent we'll be staying in town at her mom's so we don't get trapped away from work. What a drag that would be.

One sister wants to know "Are we going to die?" Okay, the other one is happy she can stay in her cave in front of a fire and eat candy with her dogs. Maybe that balance out.

And there's a general buzz of out of breathness in the newsroom because who knows what could happen.

Are we going to die?

Probably not. This 12 inches, maybe, forecast sounds like a cakewalk compared to other snows we've gotten. I've been snowed into Amarillo for almost a week before I could crawl home back to Wildorado on I-40. It really did look like a parking lot. People were getting out of their cars and visiting in the bright sun after the storm. I could have walked home faster.

So we'll see. All we can do is wait. And no, I'm not making fun of the people and animals who will really suffer. I love a snow, but I hate that. It's just that the air seems to be vibrating. What's the big deal? We live on the tundra so just be careful out there, and after all, we need the moisture.

I'd rather eat boogers?

It’s must be hard to rhyme with sugar because Campbell Soup has underwritten a book called “Who Grew My Soup” that quotes the curious youngster lead character Phineas Quinn as saying, ”I like stuff that’s deep-fried and loaded with sugar. But vegetable soup? Yikes! I’d rather eat boogers!"

But it’s all for the good cause of getting kids to make better food choices like eating more vegetables, presumably in the form of soup from you know who.

Apparently, Phineas didn’t like veggies and hatched a plan to avoid eating them. One argument he hatchs is that you never know where they’d been. Maybe they were grown in Timbuctoofar, he argues.

What illustrations I’ve seen are pretty cool and the few rhymes available in preview are kind of fun if you’re a kid.

The book was written by New York ad agency veteran Tom Darbyshire who, you guessed it, was working on an ad campaign to tell the story of Campbell’s “100-year commitment to using only the highest ingredients.” The book’s illustrator was C.F. Payne.

Get the 32-page hardcover here.

Get Smarter About Water

Ducks take off from the Taylor Lakes playa unit between Clarendon and Memphis. Courtesy Texas Parks & Wildlife.

The thousands of playa lakes across the plains, including the Panhandle, are scattered wet treasures in need of a little TLC to stay their best, and several groups have gotten together some presentations for landowners on what we’re talking about.

Classes, including lunch, will be from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 3 in the Swisher Memorial Building at 127 S.W. Second St. in Tulia.

Playas are hangouts for all kinds of birds and provide what little recharge the Ogallala Aquifer gets. So it’s important to keep them healthy and happy.

“Since most playas are found on private land, landowner management is essential to maintaining and preserving playas as a linchpin in our precious water cycle,” said Darryl Birkenfeld, director of Ogallala Commons.

The workshop presentations will touch on depletion rates of the Ogallala, playa conservation programs, and techniques for playa grazing management. And best of all it’s free.

Dave Haukos, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service migratory bird specialist at Texas Tech University will begin with an overview. Kevin Mulligan, a Tech geographer, will talk about saturated thicknesses and depletion rates of the Ogallala. Manuel De Leon, wildlife biologist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, will cover federal incentive programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program and the Grasslands Conservation Program. He will also discuss grazing practices that enhance playa functioning and increase wildlife habitat, according to a news release.

To reserve a place at this workshop, or for more information, contact Jeff Lewter, NRCS District Conservation in Tulia at 806-995-4126, ext.3.

The workshop is sponsored by Ogallala Commons, with its partners: the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and Playa Lakes Joint Venture.

graphic from Playa Lake Joint Ventures

Cap and trade is so passé

There’s a push on to cut those nasty Wall Street people out of climate control in the U.S. It’s called cap and dividend as in there are still permits for businesses to belch global warming gasses, but the income generated through sales of the permits mostly go back to the public. They wouldn't be traded in the Chicago marketplace specially established for that and patterned after the Mercantile Exchange there.

Every energy conference I’ve been to has provoked questions about how to curb financial speculators in the market for carbon credits. You know, those people who like to make money for nothing. (I wish I hadn’t said that because the MTV song is in my head now, probably for hours.)

Continuing. The supporters of the proposal say while energy prices will go up under any cap system, especially as the permits shrink, allowing fewer emissions. The key is consumers under the dividend version get – dividends. They would amount to about 75 percent of the income the government gets for the permits. The rest of the green would go to environmental research.

The bad news is both the passed House version of climate legislation and the proposed Senate version are cap and trade. The good news is the new proposal would limit a business’ ability to use offsets, like planting trees in Sri Lanka, to make their emission quota. And then there's that limited trading of greenhouse gas permits.

The cap and dividend proposal has a Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, as a co-sponsor, so maybe it would have some momentum since Republicans who support cap and trade are an endangered or extinct species. However, even if the Senate passes a dividend plan, they would have to negotiate with those House people who make those Wall Street people look like school kids.

And now, the local bits

Linda Loper, who's kind of the honcho on the ground at Mariposa EcoVillage, reports the cold weather has put a crimp in some of the work out there west of town.

After Tuesday's Environmental Advisory Committee meeting, she said work on plastering was on hold until things warmed up a little. The welcome center, however, is weathered in, so work can begin soon on the earthen floor. That will be a lot of packing of dirt from the site to make it hard, smooth and shiny.

And building No. 2 will begin to take shape soon. Linda said her house will be going up. It will be built with insulated cement slabs on a site carved into a hillside.

While the welcome center's compressed earth walls were interesting, her home should be fun as well. It will be completely off the electric grid, and 'look ma,' no well. The water will come only from rainfall capture. Now I can see that in Austin or somewhere, but here in the Great American Desert, as early maps labeled our stomping grounds.

She seems to know what she's talking about, so we'll see.

Back to the Green Committee, they will take the new Web site to city commissioners Tuesday to get their blessing and suggestions. Live launch is planned for Jan. 19.

Lights Out – The clock is ticking

The second annual “Sylvania Socket Survey” is full of surprises.

Okay, it says 74 percent of participants have switched to energy-saving light bulbs in the past year. That may be true, but there are more than 74 percent of shoppers at stores I frequent buying standard bulbs or the stores are foolishly filling shelves with the outdated bulbs.

That was surprise one. But No. 2? Almost 75 percent of respondents didn’t know that incandescent bulbs are headed for a phase-out beginning Jan. 1, 2012.

Count me and everybody I know in that group. I’m not proud of that, but it’s true. A press release about the survey says the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for the transition to start with traditional 100-watt bulbs and continue from there.

At the bottom of the release is the explanation that the survey involved only 300 adults. That makes some of the findings make a little more sense, but I wonder if some of the them are really true. How does compact fluorescent lights get into “71 percent of homes in America” but rank second to traditional bulbs in terms of use? Are the CFLs not turned on or do people only use them in a few lamps, using the usual bulbs in all the others?

I don’t get it.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the results.

66 percent of respondents said they are likely to purchase a compact fluorescent light (CFL), halogen or light-emitting diode (LED) bulb in the future.
Halogens are used in 40 percent of homes.
12 percent are using LED lighting.
52 percent said price is a key consideration in purchasing; the responses reflect a 12 percent spike compared to 2008.
Just 13 percent said they plan to buy extra 100-watt bulbs before the phase-out.
16 percent say they will shift to lower wattage incandescent light bulbs.
91 percent said they consider energy consumption per bulb to be an important factor.

I don’t get it.

But then there's the recycling. CFLs have mercury in them, so don't throw them in the Dumpster, experts say. And you might want to use a drop cloth when changing bulbs because you don't want to have to sweep up a toxic mess.

But wait, there's more!

The phase-out will happen over two years, and by 2014, maybe there will be more choices, but the main option now is CFLs. Just be careful you get the right kind. There is a special kind if you have a dimmer switch, and you have to get the right temperature bulb, for some reason measured on the Kelvin (not my idea) scale, to get the type of light you want from yellowish to blueish. The Energy Star folks have a good illustration, but this seems a little complicated.

Nevertheless, the idea is to save energy, and that's a good thing says Andrew deLaski, director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project in U.S. News & World Report.

"It's hugely important," he says. "A 60 to 70 percent reduction in light bulb energy use will save as much energy annually as that used by all the homes in Texas last year."

I guess disrupting my life is worth that.

Adopt an invertebrate this week

Those WildEarth Guardians can’t be still. They’re in the midst of celebrating their BioBlitz and biodiversity in general.

Think of this, eight weeks of suing somebody almost every business day to mark the International Year of Biodiverstity. Sounds like fun.

The efforts are to commemorate the 36-year anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. The group is saluting the act’s impact on preserving biodiversity. So there will be 36 lawsuits or legal petitions to protect something new under the act.

They are so zany and lawyer friendly I can’t believe it.

This week, is E.O. Wilson Week for the campaign. He commented, “Attention is turning (at last) to invertebrates and microorganisms, which are what I call ‘the little things that run the Earth’ and to their immense diversity."

Dr. Wilson sounds like he's no slouch in his field, so I’ll take his word that this is a good thing. He’s won two Pulitzers and is a professor emeritus and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard, according to the Guardians.

In honor of the doc’s "life-work, all species in this week’s BioBlitz line-up are invertebrates," the Guardians said in a news release. So what will we try to protect in honor of the week? The Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly, the narrow-footed diving beetle, the unsilvered fitilarry (butterfly), the Brian head mountainsnail and the Arapahoe snowfly.

I really do get it. What is good about building a ski resort in the last remaining habitat of some creature that is nearing extinction? But the Guardians might want to consider a broader outreach. Preaching via “BioBlitz” theme weeks, next week is Prairie Week, can you say lesser prairie chicken?, seems like yelling on the highest mountaintop. Who’s going to hear you except the other crazed hikers?

Did somebody get the number of that bus?

Whew! When I say I feel like I got run over by a bus, I'm not joking.

Ever on the edge of sanity, the holidays on top of the crazed year of service I've had with the family took me down.

But no mas!

Here's a light start to build up momentum to do better in 2010. I know, heard it before, but here goes.

Want the easy road to green? Try out these actual books that came out this fall: The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Renewable Energy for Your Home
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Greening Your Business
It's easy, really.

While I was contemplating these, I got sidetracked, kind of like reading three unrelated pages of the dictionary because of the cool stuff I see when I look up something like "jalap" (The dried root of a Mexican vine of the morning glory family, formerly used as a purgative, according to Webster's).

So on the sidetrack, I found these books (also actual) that came out this fall, just in time for Christmas cheer:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Graphic Novel
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Connecting with Your Angels
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® Numerology Workbook
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Getting Government Contracts
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Making Money with Craigslist

So far, so good, but is this one really going to help if you need it?
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Getting into Top Colleges

Can't imagine what this would be about without being gross.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Eating Clean

If you want to brush up on being authentic,
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the American Accent

And a few more just to round out the selections.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Natural Childbirth
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Yorkshire Terriers, Second Edition
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Buddhism, Third Edition
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Werewolves

It's easy, really.

How much do I care?

Well, there's a new way to spend time online and save the planet at the same time.

I got a press release today with a link to a nifty new beta site that allows you to enter facts about your home and find out what you can do to save energy which translates to saving money and reducing the amount of carbon you are responsible for utilities spewing into the atmosphere. It also shows you the do-it-yourself cost of changes and how your home ranks to an "average" home, whatever that is.

Just don't be in a hurry. It may look like you're about to finish the survey when - boom - there's subquestions on the topic you are on.

How'd our house stack up? It's hard to tell, but the accuracy of ratings against average should improve as more people take the survey.

Biggest saving? Install a programable thermostat at a do-it-yourself cost of from $30 to$190 dollars. Quite a spread, but supposedly it will save us $208 a year and reduce carbon by 1,848 pounds annually.

Next up? Install compact fluorescent bulbs.

But I don't get this helpful hint. Put in more attic insulation at a cost of $700 and save $22 a year. That's a long payoff in my wallet world. Besides, there's a puny 195 pounds of carbon to be saved with this move.

Hmmm

Make up your mind

New Pew Research Center survey shows Americans are less hot under the collar about global warming - much less.

In a recent Pew poll, 57 percent of respondents said there is "solid evidence" the average temperature on Eargh is getting warmer. In April 2008, 71 percent said that and in 2006 and 2007, that opinion hit 77 percent.

What gives? Is solid not solid? Is squishy the new solid?

Pew opines the sucking sound of the economy is to blame. The center cites drops of about 10 percent in people saying immigration, health care and crime are top priorities for the president and Congress, as signs people are more focused on jobs and pay checks.

Pew says even Gallup and Fox News have seen similar results in polls.

What could this sort of sentiment do to the cap-and-trade train that is just aching to be fueled up with government dollars to get it out of the station?

What do you think? You can e-mail me at kevin.welch@amarillo.com.

Not in your backyard

I know, I've been lax in posting, but here goes a new era.

There's buzz around the region about the Chinese coming to the Panhandle to build a wind farm. I've been asked a few times in the past week and couldn't find out anything specific because all the information floating around never says where the project will be except somewhere in Texas.

That narrows it down.

The New York Times environmental blog Green Inc. is equally vague, but here's the details it did contain, confirmed on the Web site of Cielo Wind Power, the Austin-based company partnering with the Chinese. It also is active in the Panhandle, most recently developing the Wildorado Wind Ranch and piling up leases for future development.

A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Nasdaq company based in China, will ship in 240 of its 2.5 megawatt turbines for the project slated to cover 36,000 acres. The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.5 billion.

But no wonder people are in a fluff, the company hopes to get $450 million of the financing from U.S. stimulus funds, and the project will create 2,000 Chinese manufacturing jobs, according to the blog. There will be American jobs, but not anywhere close to that.

The thing is, for any wind farm, construction jobs are temporary and the jobs to maintain the farms are few.

Cielo has created jobs in the Panhandle, like at the Wildorado Wind Ranch and White Deer's Llano Estacado Wind Ranch, and has plans to do more, but this deal isn't happening here.

I talked to Walt Hornaday, CEO of Cielo, yesterday, and he said the project will be somewhere downstate where there are transmission lines available now. The Panhandle's are still not absolutely guaranteed until the PUC decides wind developers have proven they will use them, and the process to make them happen puts the finish date in 2013.

Hornaday said the reason the news on where the farm will be is that the exact location is not yet concrete.

This isn't the first time Cielo has reached out to partner with an overseas company. Cielo and Samsung Heavy Industries of South Korea are planning to install three of Samsung's 2.5 megawatt prototype turbines near Lubbock for testing.

All over but the crying

The Solar Decathalon is history now.

There's a fine Web site to check out if you haven't been following this event closely.

There's a lot of sweat and fancy thinking spent on these projects, and the contestants take it very seriously.

I won't spoil the finish for you, but there's a lot of nice work on the part of 20 university teams from Europe and North America. It was all played out on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

LED lights strategically placed in the base of the house and deck help the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's solar-powered house illuminate at night during the Lighting Design contest at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,(Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)