Fearless trainees propel turbine boom

Perched almost gom above the New Mexico plains, strapped to the sheer-edged roof of a wind turbine's generator by a single safety harness, Terrill Stowe is in his element.

"I've never had anyone fall in 14 years. Hopefully today's not the first," joked the technician instructor to journalists who struggled up the 260-rung ladder beneath him.

The giant, solitary wind turbine towers improbably over the tiny city of Tucumcari, just a half hour drive from the Texas border along the historic Route 66 highway.

Built in 2008 on the campus of Mesalands Community College, the structure is one of the few working turbines in the US where new technicians can train to join the booming wind industry.