One of West Texas’s greatest assets is the wind. It is also the most annoying. The women have learned to attach tiny little dress weights to our skirts. When the wind hits you just right, you’ll smell one of two things - cattle or oil. Take a drive down I-20 and experience the 29th reason we love West Texas. We have embraced all that Texas has to offer and we turned it into gold.
Two of the windiest cities in the United States are found in the West Texas region - Amarillo and Lubbock. We moan when just a few minutes outside ruins our hair, but when we look across the horizon and see the spinning white blades of wind turbines generating renewable energy, producing jobs and revenue for the economy, our frustrations disappear. Amarillo alone averages an annual wind speed of 13.3 mph, but don’t be fooled. That wind can get a lot stronger. Llano Estacado Wind Ranch, built in the Amarillo region in 2001, was the first of its kind to sprout up on the plains. One of the most powerful wind farms in the area is the Wildorado Wind Ranch. It's 70 Siemens turbines supply enough electricity to meet the needs of 48,000 average households. At 3,000 MW generation, the Abilene region produces more wind power than 44 states and all but 12 countries. All of the wind farms in the region generate more than 1,000 megawatts of power, with plans to add 5,500 more in the next several years.
You can’t beat a West Texas view at sunrise. Send us your favorite pictures of different wind turbines! pic.twitter.com/v8b6KTnjDs
— TTU NWI (@TTUwind) September 21, 2016
BUT West Texas also has oil. A lot of oil. Take a quick trip to Midland, Texas, where countless oil wells, identified by their glowing red flames, dot the dark landscape. According to TIME, the Midland/ Odessa region is expected to generate an average of 3.9 million barrels of oil per day. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, that is roughly a third of total U.S. oil production and enough to make the U.S. the world’s largest producer of crude, and if that doesn’t make you proud, I don’t know what will.
Speaking of 29, did you hear the news? No. 29 on the Texas Tech baseball roster Clayton Beeter along with teammate Micah Dallas were both named to Freshman All-America teams earlier this month.
Congrats to Micah Dallas and Clayton Beeter for being named to Freshman All-America teams over the weekend!
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) July 1, 2019
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