College Station is looking to a greener energy source by the beginning of next year for customers willing to make the switch.

Residential electric customers are being given the option to move some or all of their energy to wind power.

According to the city's website, the South Trent Mesa Wind Project west of Abilene will be providing power to College Station, and customers can opt in to the city's Wind Watts program. That can be done through College Station's website, which we have listed in a link below.

The issue of wind power has come to the forefront now that one of America's biggest oilmen is making the case for greener power.

"I'm T. Boone Pickens," the oilman introduces himself in a national ad. "I've been an oilman my whole life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

The 80-year-old Dallas entrepreneur's national campaign has attracted a lot of eyes, including in Texas, where the billionaire says a wind revolution can start blowing through the nation's midsection.

"In the United States compared to the rest of the world, with land size and everything, we're the best," Pickens explains on his website, which is listed below. "We have more wind than anybody else. We're not using it."

With the nation's midsection as the windiest and most ideal for giant turbines, Pickens has already eyed Pampa, Texas for the largest capture of wind energy in the world: 4,000 megawatts. That's compared to 2,000 megawatts Sweetwater, Texas is already grabbing.

Pickens proposes having 22 percent of America's energy come from wind in the next decade, replacing natural gas. That fuel would then be used almost exclusively as fuel for your car or truck, reducing dependence of foreign oil by nearly 40 percent, or a Pickens estimate of $300 billion annually.

"This can all be accomplished in less than 10 years if you have the right leadership," Pickens said.

And though he's contributed financially to Republican campaigns in the past, Pickens is not putting money towards any candidate, only an idea that he hopes becomes the keynote issue in a critical election season.

"We have to get on the same team," Pickens said. "We have to march in the same direction, but we all know we have to get loose from this right here. That is a strangle-hold on our country that we can't live with."

Pickens is making major investments in the wind power industry, so he would stand to profit from a boom in that field. There are also concerns from some when it comes to the cost of converting natural gas into vehicle fuel.