The Wind Coalition Developing the Nations Wind Corridor

The carbon credits would be put up for sale on the Chicago Climate Exchange. It trades greenhouse gases and other pollutants just as other exchanges trade such commodities as crops and livestock. Members of the exchange, such as corporations or cities, can buy carbon credits to help offset their emissions.

Farmers, ranchers and landowners can participate in the program by using no-till farming practices or growing grasses and trees to limit the release of carbon dioxide from the ground.

Endacott said he couldn’t estimate possible revenues from leasing land for wind turbines, but it’s possible carbon sequestration could eventually produce $10 million to $25 million if federal and international policy is changed to boost the market. He cautioned that that estimate was highly speculative.

While board-owned land is located across the state, the bulk is in western Nebraska. The 1.3 million acres is what’s left of a huge land contribution from the federal government in 1867.

Rent is collected on 3,200 agricultural leases and 250 mineral leases. Income from those and other sources goes to public K-12 schools across the state. In 2007, schools received more than $43 million.

For more than a decade, lawmakers and others have haggled over whether the board should sell more of its land and invest more heavily in stocks and bonds. A 1996 state law urges, but does not require, the board to sell down its land until it makes up a quarter of the board’s total investments.

But land holdings are well above that mark now — Endacott estimated about 65 percent of the group’s portfolio is land — and the moneymaking potential of both wind and carbon-trading is expected to keep land well above the threshold.

“To me, it makes it even more attractive as an investment,” Endacott said of the land holdings, which are valued at between $675 million and $690 million.

At the end of the last fiscal year, the portion of the group’s portfolio in stocks and bonds was valued at more than $452 million.

The board has a preliminary agreement with a wind-energy outfit to lease it land for wind turbines, should the wind group win a bid from a power company that wants to have a wind farm in eastern Nebraska, Endacott said. He declined to disclose the name of the company.

The board is also a player in what would be the largest wind farm in the state, located in Banner County. The board recently entered into an agreement with Chicago-based Midwest Wind Energy that will allow the company to test wind velocity and do soil tests on board-owned land in Banner County.

The board has a similar deal with the same company as it tries to develop a wind farm to the east, in Holt County.

There are between roughly 7,680 acres and 8,960 acres of board-owned land that could potentially hold wind turbines in Banner County. In Holt County, the board has about 2,240 acres that could eventually hold turbines for the Midwest Wind Energy project.

Midwest Wind Energy officials say the planned 60,000- to 100,000-acre wind farm in Banner County will have 600 to 800 turbines generating 2,000 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt is roughly enough to power 200 to 300 American homes for a day.