Lawmakers in Texas have blocked a Chinese billionaire’s push to build a 15,000-acre wind farm on a large swath of land he purchased after news of his plans drew the attention of a conservancy group.
It warned first about the environmental impact and then noted Sun Guangxin’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party and how the project could give him access to the state’s electricity grid.
And the 140,000 acres that Sun snapped up in recent years is near Laughlin Air Force Base raising national security concerns.
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act into law in June.
“As far as I know this is the first law of its kind by any state in the United States of America,” Abbott said of the bill designed to prevent “hostile nations” from accessing Texas’ electricity grid and other “critical infrastructure,” such as computer networks and waste treatment systems.