Wind Power Better Deal Than Pipelines for Landowners... Barely

A reader sends me a Bloomberg News article via the Houston Chronicle about billionaire T. Boone Pickens's effort to expand wind power in Texas. $10 billion, 667 wind turbines, 4,000 megawatts -- enough juice for 1.2 million homes. Uff da -- and I thought 34 wind turbines out by Wessington Springs was a big deal.

The article concludes with a note on how Pickens's company, Mesa Power, is going about acquiring the land for the transmission lines this project requires:

Mesa has yet to obtain rights-of-way for a $2 billion power line that will deliver the wind-farm's output to the Texas power grid, Pickens said an interview on CNBC. The farm will be constructed on leased property in Carson, Gray, Hemphill, Roberts and Wheeler counties, where landowners will receive annual royalties, Mesa said.

"We've had a great response to this project," Pickens said in the statement. "Landowners and local officials understand the economic benefits" ["Pickens' Panhandle Wind Project Orders 667 Turbines," Bloomberg News via Houston Chronicle, 2008.05.15].

What's that? Leasing the land rather than seeking a permanent easement? Paying landowners annual royalties for the privilege of crossing their land rather than just a couple paltry up-front payments for crop losses? Why couldn't TransCanada have offerd annual payments and lease agreements to South Dakota's landowners along the Keystone pipeline route?

I am dismayed to read that Pickens can be as much of a corporate socialist as TransCanada: evidently Pickens is willing to rely on eminent domain to promote a sneaky-sounding water project that's connected with this wind project.

But at least on wind power, he's willing to offer the landowners who will make his profits possible an annual piece of the action. Whether it's power lines or pipelines, the landowners along the route are giving up for good their rights to use that land as they see fit; they deserve ongoing payments for as long as that infrastructure intrudes on their land and livelihood. It's too bad our new corporate neighbors at TransCanada don't think so.