Oilman turned wind wildcatter T. Boone Pickens met with presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain Friday morning to pump his Pickens Plan to wean the United States from imported oil by shifting electricity production to wind farms and using natural gas to fuel cars and trucks. On Sunday, he’ll hook up with Democrat Barack Obama.
The McCain meeting was “good…very relaxed,” Pickens said Friday during a conference call with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to promote next week’s National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas. “It was a free flowing discussion. I presented the Pickens Plan to him, and he asked a lot of questions about it. He feels like I’m an energy expert, and he wanted information.”
Pickens began a campaign in July to foster a bipartisan approach to reducing the U.S.’s dependence on imported oil, declaring the “the United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.” Pickens is building the nation’s largest wind farm in Texas, and he has an interest in a natural gas transportation company.
Though Nevada Democrat Reid remarked, “Who would have thought that T. Boone Pickens and Sen. Harry Reid would have been in same boat pulling the oars same way,” Pickens made clear he’s no latter-day Al Gore.
“I’d open it all up to drilling – OCS, ANWAR,” he said, referring to the outer continental shelf and the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge – the third rail of environmental politics.
“The one place I differ with Senator McCain is that I said if you’re going to open the OCS, throw in ANWAR too,” Pickens added.
Gore and other greens have questioned the viability and environmental impact of using natural gas for transportation. Pickens, on the other hand, said he isn’t opposed to electric cars. But, he added, “We can’t make a big cut [in oil imports] in ten years without using natural gas as a transportation fuel. Use it for trucks and let them do what they want with cars.”
For Reid’s part, he said offshore drilling was still on the table, but he’s pushing for Congress to extend the renewable energy investment tax credit that expires at the end of the year. Scores of wind and solar projects – like the massive photovoltaic power plants that California utility PG&E (PCG) unveiled Thursday with SunPower (SPWR) and OptiSolar – are contingent upon Congress renewing the 30% tax credit.
“We have people standing by willing to invest billions of dollars in renewable energy,” Reid said. “The future is not in a commodity that was discovered in the 18th century. The future is sun, wind, geothermal.”
I’ve yet to see anyone propose a mass transit system that actually works, This should be built the large metropolitian areas of our country. This would save more fuel and emit less greenhouse gas than anything that has been suggested to date. But I’m talking a system that really works, not the government run failure that we have now in most cities…
As much as I respect and admire Mr. Pickens, and as much as I share his goal of eliminating our reliance on imported oil, I disagree with his approach. Wind energy is intermittent, unreliable, astronomically expensive, and would require massive investments in new transmission lines and roads. The ONLY technology that can accomplish this goal safely, cleanly, and at a price we can afford is Nuclear energy.
John Wheeler
“This Week in Nuclear”
I’m with Ray from Orlando. I’m from Iowa and have emailed Senator’s Harkin and Grassley repeatedly about starting a rail-bus system like europe has. Build it in the bigger border states and connect the dots. At LEAST develop a plan. And lower the speed limit while they are at it and save 15% in efficiency.
I disagree on lowering speed limits. Maybe you don’t, but I have places to go and would rather not have to spend additional time every day trying to get where I need to be. Besides, the greater problem (at lest in urban areas) is stop and go traffic. That costs me far more in fuel economy than driving a fast consistent speed. To fix congestion, you need good (practical for a large chunk of the population) mass transit.
I believe that we need all sources at the table for our energy future. This means that wind, solar, and geothermal need to be given the same advantages that the oil, coal, and natural gas industries are dependent upon to supply the United States with affordable energy. This means that we must give the same kinds of subsidies to the emerging industries which the established energy providers enjoy.
I would not trust Mr. Pickens at all. He is definitely an aggressive opportunist who wants to control the electricity market in north Texas and also wants to control water resources from the his land (and possibly others) in the Texas Panhandle. He will convince legislators to seize land under eminent domain, too, for long-distance power lines. The water is from the Ogallalah aquifer that will be rapidly depleted but Pickens doesn’t care; he will have made his billions more and move on to the next “opportunity”. Remember, he was a greenmailer in the ’80’s and bankrolled the Swiftboaters in 2004. We can do better than this guy.
We believe Natural Gas Vehicles are a near term solution, we have started http://www.wisegasinc.com to bring natural gas vehicles to Florida. At less than $1.25 a gallon equivalent and over 8 million natural gas vehicles globally, we think this is a place to start.
I believe that Mr. T-Boon Pickens is wrong. He is a wealthy oil-man who sees that the sun is setting for Big Oil. This filthy swine doesnt care about energy independence, he only cares about lining his pockets. Why is an oil-man all ready to jump to wind energy? Because he sees how much he can profit from the lies of wind energy. Face it, we as a people, are dumb & niave. We put our faith into things, and then blindly trust without knowing the facts. I am going to quit my job and go on welfare now, so i wont care as long as i get my check and food stamps. So long suckers!
Mr. Wheeler – could you please explain to me why you think wind energy is ‘intermittent’ in the windy states like North/South Dakota and others which ALWAYS have wind? Along these same lines how is wind ‘unreliable’? As far as the ‘huge expenditures’ necessary to ramp up wind production, have you no idea how much it costs and how long it takes to build one nuclear plant? BILLIONS, and 10 years minimum. I agree we need more nuclear power, but we also need wind and solar, which are far less risky. Also, the cost of wind energy is coming down every year exponentially.
The only ones blocking the tax credit on renewable energy are The Republicans. They talk a good game about becoming financial indepedent about foreign oil but they are on the pockets of Big Oil
We need to drill from 15 miles from coast to all sea places and Alaska,iol sand,solar,wind,need all the research on any kind of enegry.Give good and fair tax breaks to those who are investing in any enegry there is-a mass scale on enegry research.We have got to get away from the Arab countries.
I think we should continue to drill, drill, drill. We should also encourage unrestrained drilling by every other oil producing country. We should allow oil companies to drill wherever they want and give them tax money to do it. The sooner we can suck the last drop of oil from our planet the better. Once its gone then we will have no other choice but to find other sources of energy for our transportation needs. Lets just get it over with.
I believe Mr. Pickens has been very straight-forward about his motives. As long as we live in a capitalist society (ie. until Mr. Obama is elected), the goal of any enterprise is to make money. His new inititive is both well-timed and at the cutting-edge of social consciousness. You can not deny much of his logic, and to question is motives is counterproductive and.. well silly considering he is a billionaire entrepreneur.
WHY has it taken so long for these two candidates to contact T Boone? We haven’t heard a word from either about the plan in their numerous speeches about the energy CRISIS, and it’s a well thought-out serious plan that begins to solve the problem NOW…not in 8-12 years. And it’s being offered by an oilman. Think about that! Pickens for Energy Secretary. Americans are hurting NOW…not later. A renewed drilling program is fine…LONG TERM but Picken’s plan is NOW and it opens up the renewable approach via wind generation, and will spark other alternatives.
Picken’s Plan also begins to fix the trade deficit problem by reducing oil imports. The only way the US can afford an economic fix & expansion, a foreign policy that works for US and the money to repair social security and begin to fix the healthcare problem is to STOP THE TWIN DEFICITS. We need smart entrepreneurs like T Boone Pickens and Lee Iaccoca on the bext administration’s cabinet.
Forget about Pickens as an individual for a minute. Yes, he will make money, so what. That is not a reason to disregard wind as a step in the right direction. There are many other investors, both individuals and corporate out there that are investing billions in wind, and I hope like heck more do as well.
As for the intermittent nature of wind, yes that is true, but keep in mind we already have the infrastructure in place to handle variations in electric demand. Wind will provide an alternative to fuel consumption, mostly natural gas, and coal. Nuclear will always run flat out. Let’s not be afraid of the dark so to speak. We can handle the variable output. What we can’t handle is our complete waste of money flowing out of our Country for foreign oil.
I can’t believe how much people argue about ways to solve our energy problems. Yes, people are going to profit thank god for that. Do you want everything ran buy the goverment. No, company in the world could last being ran like our goverment. Think about how high our energy cost would be if it was up to DC and wastefull spending. Capitolism is the back bone of this country if your not a capitolist you are a comunist or just plain lazy!
I’m going with geothermal, which I don’t understand why people are not saying more about it. Yes, it is expensive to put in, but my monthly bill will still be lower than what I would pay for fuel oil or gas. Once that system is paid of, I pay nothing to anybody except for the electric to run it. At least with geothermal I don’t see it like all these windmills that they want to put up all over the countryside. I’ve reasearched “wind-power” and the cost of putting it up and maintaining it (if it works), is terribly expensive. At least I know that the geothermal systems have been in place for over 50 years and is a proven way to heat, cool and heat your hot water tank. I know several people that have them and pay very little to heat their homes.
Jimmy from Nashville: North and South Dakota are great examples of why wind energy is cost prohibitive. Both states have good wind resources, but they are also hundreds of miles from concentrated electrical loads. It’s not just the cost of the wind turbines, but the construction of thousands of miles of roads to build and maintain the turbines, and thousands of miles of new high voltage DC transmission lines to bring the power to market. An article in the Wall Street Journal last week estimates it will cost $100 Billion to build an electrical grid capable of carrying distributed wind and solar generation from the sources to the loads.
In the best land-based locations wind turbines produce energy at about 30% capacity factor, so you need approx. three times more wind mills to generate a desired amount of electricity. Even areas with good wind resources experience rapid changes in the wind. Germany, the Netherlands, and Texas have all experienced serious electrical grid disturbances caused by unexpected changes in wind speed and corresponding step changes in wind turbine output. As a result rapid start gas turbines need to be located near wind mills to stabilize the grid. Pickens knows this and is pushing wind because it will result in more demand for natural gas, not less.