Windfarm Windfall?
County Pushed Back on Wind Turbines But Now Poised to Cash in On Green Energy – Just Not Where You’d Expect
Fayette County Judge Dan Mueller told the Record last week that a wind energy company wants to lease the County’s school land in Baylor County for a wind farm.
Fayette County owns 4,186 acres of land in Baylor County that is managed for the benefit of the public school in Fayette County.
The school land involves an interesting bit of Texas history. The fledgling Republic of Texas had little money to pay for anything. But it had lots of public land - mostly unsettled land on what was then the frontier. The Republic of Texas and later the State of Texas appropriated these lands for a variety of purposes - to pay off the wages owed to veterans of the Texas Revolution, and also to fund the establishment of free public schools in the counties that existed at that time. Up until 1910, the state allotted land to each county for the benefit of their schools. That’s how Fayette County ended up with its land in Baylor County.
State law requires all proceeds from these lands to directly benefit the public schools in the county to which they belong. Many counties have sold off their school land over the years. Fayette County still owns its school land in Baylor County.
Every year, the County splits up the proceeds from the land to the five public school districts in Fayette County according to a formula based on school size. The surface is leased for agriculture and hunting operations. Fayette County also owns the mineral rights on the property. A few years ago oil and gas production boomed there, and the Fayette County schools benefited greatly from royalty revenue, for a while.
Now a wind power company, ENGIE, wants to lease the property for wind turbines.
“I have been contacted by that firm,” Mueller said. “We’re looking at a proposal.”
Mueller said neighboring property owners are trying to lease their land for the wind farm. They want Fayette County to lease the school land as well, Mueller said, because it will make the project more attractive to ENGIE.
“One might say, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t want windmills in Fayette County,’” Mueller said. “But the property owners up there want these things. It’s a totally different atmosphere.”
Just three weeks ago, the Fayette County Commissioners Court unanimously passed a resolution opposing wind farm development here. The resolution emphasized the County’s support for local landowners opposed to the Mustang Wind development north of Schulenburg that was proposed by Apex Clean Energy. The resolution called for environmental and economic impact studies.
Mueller said the County Attorney’s office is reviewing ENGIE’s proposal. Once built and in operation, the wind farm could generate “hundreds of thousands” a year for the school districts in Fayette County, Mueller said.
“It could be a tremendous windfall,” Mueller said.