Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham vows to continue fighting the Biden administration's plan for a massive wind farm off the Galveston Coast.
State lawmakers along the Coast wanted an in-depth investigation into the federal plan and a permitting process, but were never given a hearing, as reported by Texas Scorecard.
Commissioner Buckingham has taken the baton, calling it a federal overreach.
"They haven't done a national Energy Policy Act, which requires an environmental impact statement. That hasn't been done. They're in complete defiance of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, requiring a project not interfere with other 'reasonable uses' of the area," she says.
Then there's the impact on the port.
"It's estimated the negative impact to the Houston Ship Channel is over $800 billion a year, and we're just not going to stand for it," says Buckingham.
Buckingham also points to turbine graveyards in West Texas, where decommissioned fan blades are left rusting and decaying.
"I also have a lot worries about the transmission lines that might come across our state lands. I'm fighting that tooth-and-nail as well. I'm telling them they can feel free to go to Louisiana, because I'm not interested in hurting our fish migratory patterns due to the electrical currents these electrical lines create in the water."
Photo: Aldrich, Beatrice (uploader)