Now this is truly interesting. From CNN:
Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power.
The legendary entrepreneur and philanthropist on Tuesday unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States’ dependency on foreign oil by more than one-third and help shift American energy production toward renewable natural resources.
“The Pickens Plan” calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind, and switching from oil to natural gas as a transportation fuel.
He’s apparently putting $2 billion down on the table, so he’s serious about playing the hand… and as a result of both the project and its scale, there are very real possibilities. I’m not an expert on any of this, so I can’t speak for his numbers, but I’m intrigued. Excited, even.
Pickens’ site is here. I also looked up some detail from a November announcement about the public hearing in Gray County:
Pickens, a Roberts County rancher and Dallas businessman, created Mesa Energy to build a 4,000-megawatt wind farm in northern Gray County and southern Roberts County. In addition to the wind farm, Mesa plans a 750-megawatt coal-fired plant to supply energy when the wind isn’t blowing and a 600-megawatt natural gas-fired plant to handle peak loads.
In addition to the generation facilities, Mesa plans a 320-mile transmission line to the Dallas area to tap the fast-growing urban markets of North Texas.
For those of you who, like me, have heard about the impact on bird populations, here’s a link to some information. And here’s yet another link to “common misperceptions” (pdf) about wind power.
So why do I think all this is so interesting and important?
For one thing, the scale of Pickens’ project means real, measurable impact that can be duplicated all the way up the “wind corridor”. It’s also a big enough step that other forms of renewable energy might finally be brought into the picture, under similar circumstances. (Think geothermal…) Add to these a modest expansion in nuclear power, and you’ve got yourself a realistic, viable, and sustainable energy plan for the future — and not the far distant, just-in-time-for-the-grandkids future, either.
Our future. A little over a decade.
His energy plan could be implemented within 10 years if both Congress and the White House treat the current energy situation as a “national emergency and take immediate action,” [Pickens] predicted.
Well duh! It is an emergency! Let’s act like it, people!
All our government really needs to do is provide some incentives and then stay out of the way.