I wanted to hear what people thought of T. Boone Pickens? So he is an oil man, he's made a fortune on oil, #207 on Forbes list of the 400 richest people....net worth of $1.5 Billion plus from oil and energy investments. He has also launched a national campaign called "The Pickens Plan" which you can check out at pickensplan.com. He basically wants to harness the wind across the center of the U.S.. His famous quote is that "the Unites States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power" and that "Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain."
So is he going to pay for this or are the taxpayers? I like his plan in terms of harnessing wind power, you know that I augment 100% of our power bill with wind credits, but I get a bad feeling about his interests. It seems to me like he wants to push his plan and then he will rule 20% of our energy output in the future. Then what if he wants to control the price and set it to whatever he wants, won't he be exactly like the existing oil controlling nations of the world...the ones that he is trying to create or reinforce a general disdain for? Perhaps more research is necessary on my part....Hmmmmm, what do you think of the whole issue?
Monday, July 21, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
He has always had his own interests in mind in the past, I am not sure he can be trusted. But, he is showing leadership unlike anyone else right now including McCain and Obama. Wind power has its weaknesses: you still need a good deal of capacity on standby in case the weather doesn't cooperate.
from everything i have read. Solar is a better option for a whole host reasons including the capacity thing and the fact that generation occurs at peak need. But ultimately there will have to be a big investment in both. Frankly if he puts the money up to build it i think others will follow suit.
That's the thing though, I couldn't find in his plan where it says he is putting up any money. That's why I think he want's to get it into the political arena so that it can be passed on to tax payers. Although he has put up $56 million of his own money to start this PR campaign!
Post a Comment