I was on the team that built a large solar farm on his Bison Ranch near Raton, NM about 14yrs ago. We only occupied about 165ac in the SE corner of the ranch which is huge. Lovely country only a few miles distant from the NRA Wittington Center. Turner is a interesting blend of conservationist, capitalist and environmentalist.
An interesting story: My boss at the time sold a engineering company focused on solar projects in NJ to Turner about 20yrs ago. He stayed on as the President and COO. Ted would fly in from Atlanta once a month to meet with him and the rest of the management team. My boss would drive to Newark AP to pick up Ted and drive him to the office which was a 20min drive to the West. Bruce, (My Boss) liked fast cars and drove a BMW M5. Each month Turner would castigate Bruce for driving his big gas guzzler car and how he was destroying the environment and that he should get a Toyota Prius like the one Ted had had home.
After about 3-4 months of this regular derision from Turner, my boss broke down and bought a little Prius and gave his Beemer to his wife, lol. He was expecting high praise from Turner when he picked him up at the airport. Turner got in the little Prius which is a bit cramped to ride in, and said nothing.
after driving about 5 min, Ted asks my boss, "Bruce, what kind of a GD little crackerbox car are you driving? If you get me killed in this little piece of $h!t, my wife is never gonna forgive you!" Bruce liked the Prius and kept it and for me was one of the best bosses I ever had out of a long string of very good ones. The story illustrates that Turner at times would do or say things only for shock value or effect and that he was a man of sometimes conflicting values. I never met him since he had sold the firm to a big solar company prior to my coming on board. We all had a good run together.
