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Texas leads the nation in wind power.

When it comes to pollution, Texas has a big problem. We breathe some of the dirtiest air in the country.

But when it comes to making clean-burning energy, we've come a long way.

Texas leads the nation in wind power.

That's not by accident - it was a deliberate effort to turn a problem into a profit.

It's been a long time since something really big happened in Sweetwater, Texas.

You know the old saying?

"It may not be the end of the world but you can see it from there."

But folks round here have always known they were rich in two things.

"We would be in tall cotton out here if we could find a way to sell the rocks and the wind," said James Wilks.

And now, they have. Wind for energy. Rocks to pave the service roads.

James Wilks is a long-time Sweetwater attorney.

He specializes in a field that, until recently, didn't even exist.

He's a wind lawyer.

"First thing you know, you start getting calls, 'I hear you're the wind lawyer down there.' Well, I'm one of them," he said.

Wilks negotiates contracts between landowners and the wind companies.

Many of his clients collect $30,000 a year for each turbine on their property.

Around here, when the royalty checks come in, they call them wind checks.

"That's what I call them because I think they're a gift from God and God's wind," Wilks added.

Texas leads the nation in wind.

And that's because of something called the renewable portfolio standard.

It's state legislation that passed about eight years ago requiring that a portion of all electricity come from renewable sources.

It was, and still is, one of the most ambitious standards in the country. And it ushered in a new green, gold rush in Texas.

Sweetwater now bills itself as the state's "Wind Power Capital."

The town's motels are sometimes so booked up with construction workers, they keep building more.

Even the town newspaper is updating its image.

The investment in the Sweetwater area is massive and long-term.

Ben Givens manages a local wind farm.

"You're probably looking at $2.2 million. Each," he said.

And turbine components, once imported from Europe, are now made in factories across Texas.

Jim Marston is a green energy advocate who pushed for the renewable standard.

"This is the kind of green that you like. It's good for our kids' future and it's good but it's also good for our pocketbook now."

And wind companies are ready to invest $10 billion in remote parts of Texas.

But there's a problem.

There are not enough transmission lines to bring that new energy into the big cities.

And there's so much congestion on existing lines that some wind farms can't ship as much energy as they can make.

To solve the problem, the legislature recently approved incentives for building transmission lines to the windiest parts of the state.

"You spread it around and you can count on wind blowing in Texas, someplace, all the time," said Marston.

Soon, 5 percent of our energy, in Texas, will come from wind.

Marston says 20 is realistic, with excess sold to other parts of the country.

"We have the potential to be the Saudi Arabia of wind," he said.

And perhaps, nobody knows that better than Wilks.

He's not just a wind lawyer.

"We're all kind of closet environmentalists."

He's a landowner with 14 turbines.

To him, wind is a beautiful thing.

"You can look at them and get paid or you can look at them and not get paid. It's your choice," he said.

The federal government is considering legislation to create a renewable energy standard for the whole country.

Some estimates suggest that could create 185,000 jobs.

E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com