# Wind Power Gets a $5 Billion Boost in Texas

*Published:* 2008-07-21
*Author:* Sheryl Canter

![Sheryl Canter](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2008/07/sheryl_canter.jpg)*This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.*

Billionaire Texas oil man [T. Boone Pickens is pushing hard for the development of wind power](http://www.pickensplan.com/). He says that we can get 20 percent of our electricity from wind within 10 years if we put our minds to it, and is planning a large wind farm in Pampa TX.

And that’s not the only Texas wind project in the works.

On Thursday, Texas regulators approved a [$5 billion project to build transmission lines for carrying wind power](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19wind.html?ref=science). The new lines will bring power into urban areas, easing a serious bottleneck. The decision will give Texas more wind capacity than the next 14 states combined.