Texas drove out Chinese firm, not the wind farm it planned

DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — Long before a Chinese spy balloon captivated and spooked the U.S. public, Kyle Bass foresaw what he deemed another foreign danger slated for skies above the Texas-Mexico border: wind turbines.

Dozens of them, roughly 700 feet (213 meters) tall — as big as San Antonio’s tallest skyscraper — were set to sprout across thousands of scrubby acres near the pristine Devils River. Protests that a wind farm would harm a sensitive ecosystem in Texas flopped, but when attention turned to a Chinese billionaire behind the project, state lawmakers raced to pull the plug.

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