T. Boone Pickens Explains His Plan, what do U think ?

If T-Boone were serious, he'd stop backing the R candidate dujour by funding the attack groups. McCain doesn't NOT reflect Picken's views in this YouTube.

He should also diversify. Not only investing in Wind but Solar, Geothermal, methane from animal byproducts (you know the ones I mean), etc.

If he wants to transfer the natural gas to transportation (which isn't entirely possible) he need to also look at replacing nuclear and coal with...wind, solar, geothermal, methane, etc.

 

Why the heavy PR? Why not go about it quietly? Is he a newly awakened sustainable living guru or still an old style moneyman? If you read the press closely, you can find your answer.

 

solar? yes. wind? yes. other energy sources? yes! natural gas? no...

i'm willing to compromise my pseudo anti-NG-for-alternative-energy stance if it means less foreign oil, but part of me has a sneaky suspicion that he (consciously or otherwise) wants to create a "new" market, so to speak.

 

Picken's 4GW wind farm is sitting idle... turns out the grid can't handle the power and will require a $1 billion upgrade that will take years.

Another example of throwing money at the problem.

 

He's bought land and is planning on installing a lot of wind generation, which he plans to sell. He's becoming a utility company using wind rather than another power source. Hence the holes in the presentation regarding other alternative renewables and the focus on wind.

He's not newly awakened to sustainability. He's newly awakened to peak oil and looking at the next moneymaker. "Everyone" is doing Solar. Wind is the dark horse moneymaker where opportunity lies. I'm sure this is less about convincing everyone else to do it and more about investing in *his* venture so he can do it with other people's money.

 

One cheer for natural gas, the least harmful of the fossil fuels, but it's much more sensible to use it for fixed-site applications such as power generation. Vehicles want liquid hydrocarbon fuels; these should be manufactured from non-fossil carbon using non-fossil energy. Oil and coal should be left in the ground except possibly for use as raw materials for plastics and other chemicals whose carbon will mostly not end up in the air.

Agreed, Pickens is attempting to apply a partly green and partly patriotic figleaf to his latest business ventures.

 

His plan is better than anything we've heard from any politician, especially the republicans. NG is less harmful but I don't know how long it will last. He mentions 30-40 years but I can't see us replacing our transportation infrastructure "twice" within 40 years.

 

I am Glad Someone Is Trying Something!!
Where have our leaders been for the last 30 Years??

 

When he pays John Kerry the $1 Million he owes I might start to think he's turned a new leaf.

 

The guy is 80 years old! He is never going to see a dime from those wind turbines or the expansion into natural gas. You guys are so cynical. All anyone ever does is poo poo everyone else's idea. The fact of the matter is this guy knows more than anyone on this board when it comes to wind power, oil and natural gas.

They asked him about solar and he said do it all, but he does not know enough about solar like he knows about wind.

Do you guys know who is against his plan? The natural gas industry. They make big bucks off of using nat. gas for power generation. They are fighting the wind industry tooth and nail. They do not want those transmission lines that are needed. Chesapeake energy's plan is to use nat. gas as a transportation fuel and for power generation. Can you say hello high prices?

To do his plan will take 5 to 10 years in the mean time the natural gas industry will lose out until enough automobiles take up the slack.

I would like nothing more then to build hybrids for everyone and nuke/solar/ wind power but it is not going to happen in the next ten years like this can. Toyota can not even build enough Prius to meet the current demand.:smash:

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Pickens moved out of oil and into natural gas. Increased use of natural gas is a key component of his plan. Not saying the plan isn't reasonable, but that's one reason for the PR.

 

I watched the ABC World News segment on him yesterday (leading story). Sounds like he wants Congress to get the infrastructure built to deliver the power. The government should step up here with the recent $7/gal gas forecast. Otherwise, we'll all be moving to climates where we can open our windows in the summer.

You can hate on the guy all you want, but the rats jump off the ship first. They know the score long before the rest of us.

ABC News Story

 

Anyone remember James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., 39th President of the United States? He tried to get us to think about and act on energy policy. Few people cared; most people wanted "morning in America" instead. We all get the leaders and the policies and the outcomes that the majority of voters deserve.

In global energy policy terms, certainly the wind and nuclear aspects of Pickens' plan are useful. The coal and natural-gas-for-transport parts are not. He may truly believe that it's all good public policy (for the US, anyway) and not merely to make more money; he can make plenty selling natural gas as it is. But sincerity does not equal correctness.

 

Amen to that.

 

I can believe he has more money than anyone on this board, but the rest of your statement is debatable. Money is not wisdom.

This is a person who has spent a good part of his life manipulating corporations and voters.....to his advantage. While the "cause" may sound good, there is little that is really forward thinking.

Now you are an economics expert, so I really will pay attention to your views on the following questions. Is he in a position to benefit significantly from his plan? What can he influence differently than what the developing economic situation would create anyway?

Why do we have to wait for the government? ....and be careful what you ask for. What if the government steps up with stupid policies?

Only if "us" was not paying attention. There is nothing he sees that a lot of thinking people were seeing more clearly, longer ago.

 

Why wait for the government? Hmm... Building the power grid to handle the delivery of electricity derived from wind power... Yes, private industry is going to jump all over that one... but not until energy cost are too high and it's too late. I think he's making the point that for once the government should be pro-active and head off our future energy crisis. The government could kick-start wind power in a number of ways, from direct involvement to tax breaks. The guy is 80 and wants to make money quickly. If he could have found private investors willing to build the power delivery system necessary, he would have done so already.

Ok, now you're just being nit-picky. "A lot of thinking people" is not a very big percentage of the population.