Image via WikipediaThe Name
I love this guy’s name. With a name like that you could be anything from a movie star to a clown, from a country singer to a gifted composer. This guy chose to be a billionaire oilman/corporate raider. And that should tell you something about his ‘energy plan’.
Implementing his plan would make T. Boone Pickens tons of money. You see, Mr. Pickens owns plenty of land that has a little bit of oil and LOTS of natural gas. It’s the gas he wants to sell, not the wind power. Wind powered electricity generation is just the leverage he wants to use to sell all that natural gas. If he’s successful, he’ll not only help get us off oil. He’ll turn the US oil market on its side.
We’re Not Addicted To Oil
I’d admit that his plan would help us get off our oil addiction, if that was something worth agreeing with. Only problem with that is, we’re not addicted to oil. We’re addicted to non-renewables (like natural gas). This plan is like substituting crystal meth for LSD: neither one is good for you. Plus, it would take 10 years to implement his plan, and we simply don’t have 10 years.
Besides, we need to do something drastic about emissions from all these cars. Even if natural gas emissions are 30% lower than conventional gasoline, that’s still putting too much into the atmosphere. Whether anybody wants to admit it or not, we need to reduce those emissions to ZERO. And again, we simply do not have 10 years to work on it.
So, with that said, watch the one minute video below for Mr. Pickens’ point of view. Final comments after the vid….
Pickens Plan
Largest Transfer Of Wealth
I hesitate to include this thought, because it is the subject of a series of posts I’m working on, but I just want to drop a bug in your ear about that statement, made by T. Boone Pickens in the video above. All I’m saying here and now is this: There is a connection between the recent mortgage crisis, the current financial crisis, the energy (prices) crisis and other world events. You can wait for me to finish the series, or you can start looking around yourself. The information is spread all around the internet, and you can find it if you look hard enough.
Back To T. Boone Pickens’ Plan
Since the plan is a half-assed attempt to profit from natural gas using wind as the leverage, I’m throwing myself 100% behind the lever. I want those wind generators online as soon as possible. As for the rest of it, the part about making Mr. Pickens a hefty profit on his natural gas holdings, I could care less. While I’m not against his profit, I can see many ways he could profit in other areas. Wind generation is one. And, since he’s already on the dirt with the windmills, how about a hefty mix of solar collectors as well?
There is a place for natural gas to be used in our world. There is a place for oil and a place for coal. But none of those things should be producing energy for our private vehicles, or our homes, or our offices or our factories. Whether we want to or not, we simply have to change that mindset.
I am Jon. Thanks for stopping by.
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Climate Progress
Interesting quick research from Mike, commenting over at The Energy Blog:
Looking at the IEA data for 2007 for OECD countries that provide ‘leadership’ for wind there is some interesting results:
The winner is Denmark where 83% of electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels. Very very green. The Netherlands in next at 79% fossil. Portugal – 69%, Germany 68%. Spain is not doing too bad at 62% but that may have more to do with 18% nuclear generation than wind and solar.
Excuse me but I will ignore these folks when they pitch their ‘good’ ideas for reducing ghg.
Next I took a different approach. I looked to see who was burning the least fossil fuel to make electricity. The winner is the Swiss at 3% fossil, 40% nuke, and the rest hydroelectric. Cheaters.
Sweden is not far behind at 9 % fossil, 40% nuke. France at 12% fossil, 85% nuke. Slovak Republic 27 % fossil, 51% nuke.
