Big Wind from Texas

Quick! What state symbolizes the old petroleum economy? Texas, of course. Now, what state leads the way towards a future of clean, renewable wind energy? Texas again! By early 2008, Texas had installed more than 5,300 megawatts of wind production -- more than twice second place state California -- and had another 2,000 megawatts under production. Why in the name of Sam Houston is the state of Spindletop messing with wind? We'll let Jerry Patterson explain that. As Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, Patterson is responsible for managing energy leases on state lands and waters and has used his office as a bully pulpit for wind power.

Why is Texas becoming such a hotspot for wind?

Texas has been in the energy business for about a century. Wind is energy. So what's your next question?

It just seems pretty simple to me. We've been building offshore oil and gas rigs for about 60 years and now we're building offshore wind platforms. We look upon energy as a good thing, and we're not handicapped by BANANA syndrome -- build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody. We don't mind looking at oil and gas rigs and we certainly don't mind looking at wind turbines.

Wind is controversial in other states -- witness the huge delays that have mired Cape Wind in Massachusetts. What do you think about the fuss up there?

My first reaction is, who are these people and what's wrong with them? Let's start with Ted Kennedy. We don't have Ted Kennedy in Texas, so we don't have anybody with the hypocrisy of "I'm in favor of green power. Oh, but you're going to put it here off my house? No, no, no we don't want that." We have people who are realists. I don't even get into the debate about global warming. It's an argument that has no justification because we need to be doing the same things whether global warming is man-made or not. We're running out of hydrocarbons. Therefore going to alternatives, renewables and conservation are things we should be doing even if global warming is caused by polar bear flatulence.

For years, California was the leading state in wind power and then Texas went great guns and within a few years surpassed California by 2006 and continues to pull away rapidly. What happened?

There are two reasons. California is an oppressive regulatory environment. Texas is not. And Texas has a lot of open space to build wind power. To California's credit, when you're a pioneer in something you're going to make mistakes. The early technology turbine blades that turned faster, at Altamont Pass, killed a lot of birds. And we have a different attitude here. People here are concerned about bird kills because they want to shoot the birds, not have them have them killed in a turbine.

Do the bird people appreciate your sense of humor?

I talked the Audubon Society and told them, "Don't worry about this, after several generations we'll have smarter birds." They did not think that was funny. The other thing I told them was wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico would be the first line of defense against avian flu. These people have no sense of humor. You can't break the ice with them.

Do you ever foresee a day when alternative energy surpasses fossil fuels in Texas?

Yeah, of course. Because we're going to run out of oil and natural gas.

How soon?

I don't have clue. If knew, I could make a bunch of money. I think it will be a while, but, you know, it's not important. We should be doing the exact same things we are doing, because it's going to go away someday. Whether it's 50 years or 150 years, I don't know.

To what degree has Texas' history with oil and natural gas leases established a model for wind energy?

Texas has an energy history in exploration, production, and in the law. In Texas, the mineral estate is dominant over the surface estate. In other words, if you own the surface and somebody else owns the minerals you can't stop them from accessing the minerals.

We have an interesting dynamic. Rural Texas has been hurting economically. Farming and ranching are less profitable and people are moving away from towns in rural Texas. Now we have wind power, and farmers and ranchers that were having trouble making ends meet are now leasing land for wind have another source of income. The footprint of a wind farm is minimal. You can still farm, you can still ranch and you can still hunt.

How about transmission?

That is the problem. The wind blows away from the load. The wind blows in the panhandle and far west Texas and the load is in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio.