Big Wind from Texas

T. Boone Pickens , the oil tycoon who wants to build the world's largest wind farm, says it's more about money than environmentalism.

Wind is economic now and Texas is taking advantage of that. When anything becomes economic, the market works. It's the same thing as $4 gasoline. We don't need CAFÉ [Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations]. The market is doing what some say the legislature should do -- mandating a fuel economy standard. We got $4 gasoline. People are going nuts trying to get rid of their SUVs and get some kind of four cylinder, five speed econobox instead.

Do you hear much from environmentalists down there?

We see some but not many. Quite frankly, a lot of them are hung up on the "we're going to kill the birds" stuff. The environmentalists are favorable on renewables but they get squishy when we start talking about wind farms because they just don't know what to do. They're having to operate in the real world but are having difficulty doing so, which is characteristic of most environmentalists.

Yet you find yourself aligned with many environmentalists on wind and it's case of strange bedfellow. You were the author of the Texas concealed handgun legislation. Is it true you carry a gun in your cowboy boot?

Yes.

Does that help break the ice with the Audubon people?

I guess as long as I don't have it loaded with birdshot they're ok with it.

For years, you've been talking about the Texas Wind Rush. How many projects do you have pending offshore?

I think we have three or four leases. We don't have any production yet…It's a large capital investment. Offshore costs twice as much as onshore. The good news is the wind is better. The wind offshore blows during the day and therefore it has greater value. If you're producing electricity by wind power at five o'clock in the afternoon in August, it's a very valuable commodity. Another advantage is when you build offshore you're 10 miles from the grid.

The other advantage is you're dealing with one right of way owner and that would be me. I manage all state lands, which includes submerged lands in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, this is one thing you might not know: most coastal states have an offshore jurisdiction of three nautical miles but Texas has nine nautical miles, or 10.3 statute miles. When you're dealing with wind in the Gulf of Mexico out to 10.3 miles, you're dealing with the state and not the feds. We are a lot more responsive and able to move than the federal government.

Does your office oversee leases on land?

We have one wind lease on state-owned land. Texas, about 95 of the surface is privately owned. Our involvement on onshore wind is really more a cheerleader. I got little skirt, a little sweater that says W. It ain't a pretty sight, trust me.

What other renewables are you seeing in Texas?

Our surface acreage is in very good solar territory. We just recently signed a utility scale solar lease on 400 acres of land in far west Texas and I think that has tremendous potential. Solar is not economic yet, but some new technologies are going to make it economic. Of course, the price of natural gas is helping that circumstance come to reality. And we have some significant, we think, geothermal potential as well. Geothermal is really exciting because we've got lots of holes in the ground already. We take that down hole heat and essentially make steam out of it and drive a turbine generator of electricity.

Put on your cheerleader costume here. What should the world know about alternative energy down there in Texas?

This is the frontier for alternative and renewable in the United States. We're not only interested in installing wind and solar, we're interested in manufacturing the components as well. Why build them in Sweden, when you can build them in Texas, right close to where you're going to be installing them? It just makes sense.