Farmers on the Cutting Edge of Energy—A Small Minnesota Town Was Years Ahead of the Country…

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http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5566001&page=1

Farmers on the Cutting Edge of Energy

A Small Minnesota Town Was Years Ahead of the Country in Embracing Wind Power

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit

Aug. 12, 2008—

TRIMONT, Minn. -- One would hardly know it driving down Main Street, but this tiny prairie town surrounded by corn and soybean fields is at the forefront of America's fight to wean itself off oil.

Long before gas topped $4 a gallon or Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens embraced renewable energy, a group of farmers here banded together to build a massive wind farm.

Today their vision is paying off.

At the edge of town, 67 giant turbines -- each taller than the Statue of Liberty -- rise above the landscape, producing enough electricity to power 29,000 homes throughout the state and providing the farmers and local government with roughly $2 million a year. And it's just the beginning. Soon, a second phase of the project will be online -- doubling the number of towers -- and a third phase is already being planned.

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1. This is just the sort of application for wind power that makes sense

Farmers and ranchers in eastern and central Oregon have taken this approach, too.