Boone Pickens, oil-man extraordinaire, thinks wind is awesome as well. Awesome enough to invest in it. Awesome enough to spend millions on ads telling you that we need to embrace it’s power. Wind is an energy we need to harness. And while we cannot tame it, we can certainly embrace it — at least Boone thinks so. So with the incoming administration and the call for change in our sources of energy I thought we’d take a gander at Boone’s plan, because honestly he’s one of the only people who seem to actually have a plan.
I find it funny however, that Al Gore has been clammoring for energy change since I was a undergrad student. His lectures for global warming orginated at my school. Gore has been for saving the planet for a while and now we have people such as Newt Gingrich joining the call. Enegry use, alternative energy plans, and conservation are no longer partisan issues. Global warming, on the other hand, is still being debated. And wether you believe in it or not, the majority of Americans believe we need to look to alternatives to provide energy for our country to run. We’ve already been adopting ethanol across the country. And while some argue that ethanol drives up the price of corn or drives down the average mile per gallon it is still an alternative. But it should be noted even though it’s helping to wean our dependency on the Middle East for energy, we’ve now turned to Brazil to import ethanol. Hey, at least it’s alternative. Which brings me back to Boone.
Boone is a man of industry. He’s a self-made man and has made billions from oil. His plan is good one, but he’s in it for the money. Don’t believe me?
“Don’t get the idea that I’ve turned green…My business is making money, and I think this is going to make a lot of money.”
The question is — can we blame him? I mean he’s old — he’s not going to be around much longer, but he’s still looking for alternatives that can make him money — but also keep our energy dependence on ourselves. Is that so wrong? It’s not the end all be all to energy conservation and alternatives, but it is a solution that’s here and available if we want it.
To end our dependence on foreign oil he’s proposed a two-part plan. The first is to convert all public transportation vehicles (buses, taxis, and transit systems) as well as service vehicles (police and fire) and semi-trucks to run on natural gas. Ironically, he’s the largest share-holder in Clean Energy which is the “the largest provider of vehicular natural gas (CNG and LNG) in North America with a broad customer base in the refuse, transit, shuttle, taxi, police, intrastate and interstate trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets.”
The second part of the plan is become the “Saudi Arabia of Wind Power.” He wants to harness the power of wind generate electricity for homes, in fact he believes up to 20% of the nations electricity can be powered by wind by 2018. Over 160 of American mayors are now supporting his plan. He’s also personally ordered over 675 wind turbines from GE and I’ve had family members approached who live in Oklahoma to host turbines on their land for a fee. So can it be all that bad?
It’s obvious Pickens family will be set for the next century (not that they aren’t already) if the U.S. decides to adopt his plan. but even Jon Stewart and his fans will ‘follow out him out the building.’ Boone has an answer to our problem. The question is — is it the right answer? What do you think…leave a comment below with your opinion.
3 Responses
I think you’d make an awesome writer, keep at it. love you, seen you soon
I’m all about green power, but the real reason I’d be lining up to invest in the Pickens plan is because his plan seems to have two goals; the first being the wind power array that he speaks about, the second being his campaign to gain control of water rights to a giant natural water supply underneath the ground of said array, called the Ogallala Aquifer. In terms of dollars and cents, the wind farm is actually the lesser part of the deal, anyway, by an extraordinary margin. Pickens has been in the water rights business since the mid-90s, but for a while, he didn’t really say anything about the water supply while discussing his Plan, preferring to focus attention on his wind farm. But a few months after his first commercial, articles started to trickle in about the plan to milk the aquifer. Then, in June, Newsweek got Pickens on the record saying, “There are people who will buy the water when they need it. And the people who have the water want to sell it. That’s the blood, guts, and feathers of the thing.”
Pickens is an old school oil man, so the business plan isn’t hard to guess: pump like crazy and sell as much as you can. It’s a great plan, really. Many climate experts are predicting wars will be fought in the next few decades over access to potable water. Even in the US, it’s already a scarce resource. Georgia recently tried to redraw its state boundary to annex a river from Tennessee, so the water could be diverted to Atlanta. Water is poised to become one of the most valuable commodities on the planet, and Pickens will have a ready supply with a pipeline to one of the most populous areas in the hemisphere. Best of all, he’s pushing to get the land for the pipeline via eminent domain deals (and thanks to his lobbying connections, he’s likely to get it), so he’ll save a bundle.
The problem with all of this is the strain that it places on the Ogallala. Up to now it’s been tapped extensively, even used up in limited areas, but still not enough overall to deplete the whole any faster than nature can replenish it. If Pickens applies the oil model to the aquifer, however, we’re looking at an entirely different scale of depletion. One that may have extraordinary consequences throughout the southwest. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, and I’m not saying Pickens should be mistrusted outright. But if people are thinking about supporting Pickens for his “green” motives, they should do so with eyes wide open. There are still questions that need to be answered before we crown him the greenest entrepreneur in the world.
You can read the Newsweek story I mentioned here:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_25/b4089040017753.htm
Jen,
You need to write more! You have great insight into politics and what is going on in the world around us. More than most people.
I’m very proud of you. This was a good article and I agee with the Picken’s Plan and as you stated at least he has a plan! Something has to be done.
Love, DAD