T. Boone Pickens is a longtime oilman and corporate raider
who may just have enough swing with the federal government to get them off of
their asses and provide transmission lines for wind generated electricity.Mr. Pickens has a very aggressive plan that
would help eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.But Mr. Pickens plan falls short of what our
real goals should be, which is the elimination of coal and gas fired plants
altogether.
Don’t take all of this wrong, I love the idea of someone
with enough pull who could actually move our national renewable power agenda
forward.But as an oilman and
businessman Mr. Pickens is looking more at the economic benefits that he can receive
from wind generation than he is at the environmental benefits and long term
health benefits for our country.The
great thing is that Mr. Pickens has made claim that wind generation is on par
with coal generation in terms of cost at this present time.Congress needs to know that even without
federal incentives they can forward a clean energy bill that makes sense to business.
Mr. Pickens plan is to use wind generation to replace the
current gas generation.His main goal is
to free up natural gas for use in cars instead of gasoline.There are huge economic benefits for the
country is reducing our demand for foreign oil, but the plan needs to be more aggressive
in eliminating our filthy production methods.Mr. Pickens plan also depends on an infrastructure for delivery of
natural gas to automobiles being built and GM and other auto makers being able
to recognize the demand for natural gas cars.Or more specifically GM not cowering to big oil or being bribed not to
make natural gas cars.
I have no idea if GM is capable of making business decisions
quickly or independently enough to meet that type of demand in the time frame
that Mr. Pickens is projecting.I do
know for sure that GM is capable of not making decisions that would help
pollution and health problems.I have a
few big questions about this plan and my first is: how can the government force
the cooperation that a plan like this would involve?I really don’t think they can, but I will
most definitely hold out hope.I know
that there will soon be a natural movement of business to renewable energy
sources but not in the 12 year timeframe that T. Boone Pickens is talking
about.
My second question is why does this plan fall so short of
accomplishing real renewable energy objectives that it has the potential to
reach?Maybe there will be an evolution
of this plan that would involve higher aspirations and goals, but in its
current form it really only has potential to build a decent transmission
infrastructure and put a few billion more dollars in Mr. Pickens already deep
coffers.I am all for making money, and
know how necessary it is to keep businesses developing cleaner
alternatives.But Mr. Pickens has the
ear of the government right now and has the opportunity to clean the air in
American permanently but doesn’t have that plan at all.
My hope is that Mr. Pickens can generate enough electricity
at a cheap enough cost to make his billions and eventually expand his
generation capabilities.I hope that his
venture is profitable enough to warrant this country never building another
coal generation plant and closing every one we have now.Good luck Mr. Pickens and I will be rooting
for you the whole way.I know yours will
not be an easy task but I do hope that it will make a difference in this
countries outlook on renewable energy sources.
