Texas' Wind Transmission Project Keeps Rolling

September 8th | The Texas Tribune

Last week, to cheers from a crowded courtroom, commissioners in Denton County unanimously passed a resolution opposing the construction of a big new transmission line through their county — even though it would carry clean, renewable wind power. Later today, the company that wants to build the line will file a stack of paperwork refuting some of the objections and asking Texas regulators for permission to proceed anyway.

It's the latest episode in the marathon drama known as CREZ (short for Competitive Renewable Energy Zones), the state's two-year-old plan for building a $5 billion transmission network to support the pell-mell development of wind farms in West Texas. Regulators already have approved eight new routes, with construction on some to begin this fall. Nearly two dozen more are in the pipeline, including the Denton County line.

"It's fast and furious," says Lambeth Townsend, an attorney with Lloyd Gosselink, an Austin-based law firm. Townsend represents Denton County landowners who fear that big, ugly wires will end up going through their property or a scenic area called the Greenbelt.

The state's Public Utility Commission, or PUC, approved the CREZ concept in 2008 in response to a directive from the Legislature in 2005. The plan calls for erecting a network of transmission lines — spanning more than 2,300 miles — to bring the wind power generated atop remote western mesas to cities in the Central and East Texas, where most of the population lives. The network has earned praise for its efficient planning from renewable energy advocates around the country.

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