logo

Did the Trump administration waive aside local concerns about a Chinese-owned wind farm project in Texas?

Wednesday, February 24, 2021
By Stevie Rosignol-Cortez
This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
YES

The Trump administration declined to block a Chinese company’s plans for a wind farm near Del Rio, Texas, despite concerns expressed by Texas politicians. The developer is a subsidiary of a Chinese energy company owned by Sun Guangxin, a Chinese Communist Party member.

In 2020 Texas politicians asked Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to intervene in his role as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. There are no restrictions on foreign land purchases in U.S., but CFIUS has wide powers to bar foreign investment on national security grounds.

Retired Adm. Bobby R. Inman, now a University of Texas professor, told Texas Public Radio he saw no national security threat from the project, despite the proximity of an air force base. He said it is simply a routine investment from an investor who sees a good market opportunity. “Where is the national security threat?”

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Lab. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Lab writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Lab reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
FACT BRIEF BY
facebook
twitter
email
email