Opponents of the Blue Hills Wind Farm in Val Verde County, proposed by a Chinese billionaire with ties to the Communist Party, argue that the project will cut into taxpayer benefits, endanger local wildlife and interfere with operations at the largest pilot training Air Force base in the U.S.
Sun Guangxin, chairman of Guanghui Industry, has proposed to build the wind farm through his subsidiary, GH American Energy, according to media reports.
“A lot of the ranchers are upset because nobody builds a solar or wind farm without U.S. tax subsidies, and now that I’ve come to see what an adversary the country of China is, I am not comfortable with us allowing a foreign national from China receiving U.S. tax subsidies for profit while still living in Xinjiang, where people are imprisoned for their ethnic origins,” said Randy Nunns, president of the Devils River Conservancy, a group of landowners that advocates for the preservation of Devils River in Del Rio. “There's still more than a million Muslim minorities that are in these internment camps right there in his home state.”
Devils River Conservancy President Randy Nunns
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The New York Times reported in July that President Trump announced sanctions against Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, “an economic and paramilitary organization that plays a central role in the development of the Xinjiang region” where Muslims are allegedly confined.
“We want the green energy but he could do it somewhere else, like in his home state,” Nunns told the Lone Star Standard, referring to Sun Guangxin. “I’m not xenophobic, but he comes with extra baggage, especially since we've come to find out how tied in he is to the Chinese government and the Communist Party.”
GH American Energy’s Blue Hills Wind Farm, which will include some 50 wind turbines, stands to benefit from between $13 billion and $37 billion in federal subsidies, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation report, “The Siren Song that Never Ends: Federal Energy Subsidies and Support from 2010 to 2019.”
“We are not only doing wind in Texas,” said GH American Energy Vice President Mingyu Tang. “We have natural gas basins here as well. We like Texas because it is the best wind resource and solar resource in the country and it has a very robust transmission system. So, I think that's a very good reason that we made our decision to choose the location in Texas.”
Tang also downplayed Sun Guangxin's widely reported ties to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.
“I think people just have those perspectives especially around China and U.S. tensions,” she said. “It's just the current environment that causes people to have these thoughts. They are free to think in that way but actually we are just doing business here. What we want is for the business to make money. It’s good for our investment. It’s good for the community and we're getting green power.”
Critics are not only concerned about safety because of the proposed wind farm's proximity to Laughlin Air Force Base, but also about how it will impact the local environment and wildlife.
“The Air Force base is the largest pilot training base in the U.S. and they have some low-flight training paths,” Nunns said. “What these turbines do is interfere with the radar. If we put up a few more turbines, the Air Force may decide to move that program to another state. We're also right on the migratory path for bats and birds such as eagles, and even monarch butterflies. Wind turbines impact bats worse than anything. So, we're concerned about that too.”
According to Tang, the proposed project is undergoing a feasibility study and has not yet moved forward with construction.
