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T. Boone Pickens Has a Plan

The Texas energy tycoon, who is building what could be the world's largest wind farm, has launched a media blitz to tout his energy plan for reducing the United States' reliance on foreign oil.

T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oilman who has become a wind power advocate, launched his energy plan Tuesday with a media campaign and a Website filled with social networking tools to promote his approach to reducing the United States’ reliance on foreign oil.

Pickens, an 80-year-old head of the hedge fund BP Capital in Dallas, is bent on using some of his $4 billion fortune to extol the virtues of renewable energy and natural gas. In a lengthy USA Today story Tuesday, Pickens said neither Republican presidential candidate John McCain nor Democratic candidate Barack Obama has paid enough attention to solving the country’s energy problems. So he will make them.

Pickens will promote his plan in TV ads, while his Website, Pickens Plan, offers Facebook and MySpace widgets to help distribute his views.

Pickens has even lined up the Sierra Club, an environmental organization, as an ally.

“Try everything. Nuclear. Biomass. Coal. Solar. You name it. I support them all,” said Pickens to USA Today.

Pickens isn’t new to the art of stirring up controversy. During the last presidential election, he offered $1 million to anyone who could prove that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was wrong in its questioning of Democratic nominee John Kerry’s military service and whether he deserved the medals he earned.

This time, Pickens is seeking bi-partisan support to come up with economic incentives to promote renewable energy and reduce importing foreign oil.

But more specifically, he said he would like to see more wind farms and automobiles powered by natural gas. According to Pickens, a combination of using natural gas for fuel and building enough wind farms to feed 20 percent of the country’s energy needs could reduce the United States’ reliance on foreign oil by a third in 10 years.

By the way, he claims to be building the world’s largest wind farm and is an investor in natural gas. Pickens has spent $2 billion so far on his 4-gigawatt wind project, located in the Texas Panhandle. He plans to spend $10 billion more, including building transmission lines, on the project. The wind farm is expected to begin producing electricity in 2011.

Pickens reasons that an increase in wind energy would free up the need to use natural gas to run power plants. The natural gas can then be turned into fuel for cars, replacing the more expensive gasoline.

He is predicting a rollout of natural gas stations along highways and in large cities, and is calling for government incentives to build those stations and cars that use natural gas.

There are already trucks and buses that run on natural gas, but he wants consumer cars to join the fleet. His Website features the Honda Civic GX, which is the only mass-market car available in the country. There are about 1,300 natural gas stations in the United States, many of them in California.

8 Comments

  • Jim Barth 07/8/08 12:39 PM

    He still hasn’t paid off on the Swift Boat $1,000,000 promise although irrefutable evidence has been presented to him repeatedly.
    His wind initiative is great though.

     Reply
  • Steve Pluvia 07/9/08 4:42 AM

    T. Boone’s ideas are good; using nat-gas as a short term replacement for transportation fuel is a good idea.  It keeps BILLIONS of $ in our economy which would produce a [much needed] economic stim unlike any we have seen.  That said, nat gas as transport fuel is a very short term solution.  Plug-in hybrids & all electric vehicles, are the very obvious long term solution.  Large commitments to improve battery technologies, wind, solar, power storage and grid infrastructure improvements are all needed.

    Regardless of your opinion on T. Boone, trying to make energy the top federal and state agenda is [in IMO] key to rescuing our economy and perhaps the future of the U.S.  Big kudos to T. Boone for spending his own money to try to focus our elected leadership on the $700 billion vampire that’s draining the blood out of the U.S. economy.  We need someone to step up and execute a much needed rescue before we become Europe’s Mexico.

     Reply
  • t reed 07/10/08 3:53 AM

    Why isn’t this group debating this proposal. I do not represent any of the involved industries, but it seems to me that there are some inconsistancies here. Don’t get me wrong I support the debate and the fact that he is doing more than most to push a solution but… How easy will it be to transport this wind power to major population centers outside of texas? Can wind power displace natural gas use in power generation or is it more likely to displace baseload power like coal? Is it more cost effective to convert cars to NG and build all of the fueling stations or should we move to hybrid electric vehicles and let power generation evolve?

    Any opinions out there?

     Reply
  • mother earth 07/11/08 1:19 PM

    Picken?s Plan makes sense! It takes sound energy policy and planning to walk that fine, cost-effective-line between greater fuel-economy and “greener” fuel technology. 

    Compressed Natural Gas will BOTH cut down on harmful emissions and help establish greater fuel independence.

    All while costing (on average) one-third less than diesel and gasoline at the pump!

    In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency runs its fleet on CNG and many drivers of the Honda Civic GX save as much as $300/month on fuel. 

    Reply
  • Paul Tegeler 07/12/08 5:19 AM

    What kind of price tag & how much energy & raw materials will be needed to build all the wind generators or solar panels needed to even make a dent in foreign oil usage

     Reply
  • Sal Coco 07/12/08 12:58 PM

    SUNNY We have some extreamly great people in this country and we as a nation have to stand up and recognize these great people when they go to bat for us. Every buck spent to develope, build and impliment T. Boone Pickens plan is a buck spent for us in a wise manner that will outlive and out perform any stupid handout. Thanks Papa Pickens.

     Reply
  • dennis williams 07/13/08 7:54 AM

    how can i invest in this great idea. how much is the stocks or shares. who do i contact. thank you, dennis

     Reply
  • Peter Broda 07/15/08 3:35 AM

    Two solar energy component manufacturers have plans to leave the U.S. : First Solar is building a plant in Germany, and Evergreen Solar is considering a plant in Spain. Will T. Boone Pickens change the American political climate to help solar and wind energy ? Or will this government again hinder all advances in these energies ? Only time will tell. But we do not have much time left. How much more of our technology can we afford to give to foreigners ?

     Reply

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