An Internet hub for moderates, centrists, and independents, with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, and right

« Obama and the Media

USA: Why Is World’s Most Self-Confident Nation So Glum? »

Legendary US Oil Man Wants To Kick Addiction

Posted by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist in Economy.
Jul 25th, 2008 | Comments

solar power

In an earlier post I had written about European Union’s plans to reduce dependence on oil and to tap the potential of Sahara sun for solar power. Now comes T. Boone Pickens, the 80-year-old founder of one of the largest US oil exploration and production companies, offering alternative energy solutions. ‘The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone,’ reads a line from his new Pickens Plan.

With surging global demand pushing crude oil prices to record highs and the US presidential candidates from left and right slamming the country’s dangerous reliance on foreign energy sources, Pickens has added his bit by saying that we can’t drill our way to lower gas prices. “By implication, anybody who tells you otherwise — including the fellow Texan he helped put in the White House — is a fraud,” says The New York Times.

” ‘Totally misleading’ is the way Pickens describes Republican attempts to convince the public that if we just opened up all these forbidden areas to oil drilling then gas prices would fall. He’s not against new drilling, but he is honest enough to say it wouldn’t do anything.

“Republicans are furious at their longtime benefactor. Senator John McCain is currently running an ad in which he directly blames Barack Obama for $4-a-gallon gas at the pump — as bogus a claim as anything yet made in 2008.

“Then along comes Pickens, Texas oilman and billionaire corporate raider, overwhelming the McCain attack with a saturation message that has the added value of being true, as Henry Kissinger once said about another matter.

“But, more importantly, Pickens is betting $10 billion in constructing what he says will be the world’s largest wind farm in the gusts of West Texas. If the mighty winds of the American midsection were harnessed, it could free up plentiful natural gas for vehicles — a relatively quick step away from foreign oil.” More here…

And here…

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Silhouette

It's the death thing. It levels the playing field. He's old, he's aware of his impending mortality and may want to leave a legacy behind his name besides greed, avarice and hamstringing America with the economic doom that BigOil has married us to. That and the Iraq deaths..

Maybe he doesn't want to go with blood on his hands. My own grandfather was a bit of a pill. He was a staunch republican and very set in his ways. Yet in the last two years of his life he changed..he began to see things very differently. He worried about what he had done wrong I suppose.

He told me secrets told to him about the Civil War, about how "of an evening" his grandfather's cousins would sneak across "enemy lines" and play poker with each other by night and shoot at each other by day. Weird stuff like that you don't get in the history books. Imagine what Mr. Pickens could tell us about how BigOil really operates? Just imagine..

Ricorun

I wonder if the Republicans will try to swift boat the old swift boater.

StockBoySF

I can't stand the guy and he's against Obama which leads me to be further concerned about possible shenanigans in the form of new swift boat attack-style ads.

But I think this move by T. Boone is great and redeems him (somewhat) in my eyes. I saw an ad last night (on either CNN or MSNBC) and noticed he supports clean alternatives, and did not mention ethanol.... Obama supports ethanol (I don't much care for it) so perhaps, to address Ricorun's question, T. Boone won't be swiftboated by Republicans because his energy plan is different than Barack's. All McCain has to do is say that he supports T. Boone's plan.

Now... where do I buy stock in the wind farm? :)

StockBoySF

Oh, and T. Boone's plan is different than Obama's plan there is nothing in it which is at odds with anything in Obama's. If we are to have energy independence and energy security, then we need a multi-pronged approach. T. Boone's plan is but one piece of that. Obama would be smart to come out and support it, too. It would be interesting to see if Obama attempts to have a meeting with Pickens and if Pickens would accept such a meeting.

SteveK

After watching the ad several times I finally realized that T. Boone's Plan, beyond showing video of wind turbines and photo voltaic panels, is apparently mostly about pushing natural gas exploration and exploitation.

Carefully read the text at the end of the ad and draw your own conclusion.

Silhouette

Good point.

StockBoySF

SteveK, thanks- I'll have to look for that.... I appreciate the heads-up.

Neocon

Pickens has long pumped water from the Ogallala Aquifer through his company Mesa Water, but has recently formed an itsy-bitsy eight acre water district (populated not coincidentally by people firmly in Pickens’ pocket) which will finance the construction of a $2.2 billion water pipeline running into the the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area from the Panhandle. Electric transmission will run above this.

And of course Mr. Pickens would say that oil is not the way to go because he cant drill oil on his easments but he can create a transmission line. Its always about money with Billionaires.

Additionally one would want to replace coal fired plants and not gas fired plants. Coal is the dirtiest of energies and gas is one of the cleanest.

According to Business Week, the 77 year-old magnate has made more money betting energy prices would rise in the last five years than he did in the preceding half century working in the oil patch. Today, Pickens is the Chairman of BP Capital Management, a hedge fund that manages roughly $2.5 billion (about a third of that number is Pickens' personal wealth), and has been delivering for its investors in a big way.

Hes one of those speculators that have been driving the oil prices up and hes now in positions that he cannot quickly dump. Never judge a book by its cover.

Tully

SteveK nails part of it, but there's more.

T. Boone has spent millions acquiring the right-of-way for the transmission lines to feed power and water to Dallas/Ft. Worth. He's also acquired the water rights to massive chunks of north Texas, which would let him suck the Ogalalla aquifer dry. He has his massive windfarm under development--and has spent more piles of money ensuring huge tax credits and subsidies for same. He has hundreds of millions invested in natural gas production, and is doing his best to get control of all the natural gas pipelines in the region.

He KNOWS wind cannot replace 20+% of current power generation for the nation. But if demand for natural gas goes up he will have locked up control of the energy and water utilities markets for north Texas while raising the demand for NG substantially.

He's a wannabe monopolist. Period. T. Boone is ALL about T. Boone.

DLS

"transmission lines to feed power _and_water_ to Dallas/Ft. Worth"

Water supply and water transfer are likely to be big stuff in the Sunbelt 20+ years from now, given continued population relocation south and west as a rule.

"doing his best to get control of all the natural gas pipelines in the region"

Don't forget liquefied natural gas imports, which are likely to increase in the future.

blog comments powered by Disqus