AUSTIN — If they build it, cheap energy will come.
That was the pitch Monday from a broad coalition of lawmakers and renewable energy enthusiasts who want state regulators to approve a multibillion-dollar infrastructure upgrade — to be financed by Texas energy consumers — that will carry wind power from West Texas and the Panhandle to the major urban areas.
The Public Utility Commission is scheduled to debate the extensive transmission-line proposal Thursday in Austin, but the deal probably won’t be completed until mid-August.
"The capacity for wind generation in West and North Texas is so great that we could position ourselves in Texas to be the world leader in wind and renewable energy in the next 100 years just as we were the world leader in oil and gas for the last 100 years," said state Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin.
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