Editorial: T. Boone's Windy Energy Plan

orange county register ^ | August 7, 2008 | staff

[kellynla]

What we like most about T. Boone Pickens' grand scheme for meeting America's insatiable energy appetite and reducing the reliance on unfriendly foreign sources of oil is his willingness that all alternatives should compete. Whether it's drilling for oil offshore, or processing natural gas shale from the heartland or capturing wind that blows from who-knows-where, Mr. Pickens is all for it.

"I'm for everything that's American," as the billionaire Texas oilman put it Tuesday when he met with the Register editorial board and news reporters.

What we like least about his grand scheme is that to pursue the parts of it he personally prefers, Mr. Pickens would rely on government's heavy hand. Without government subsidies, mandates and rights-of-way acquisitions, America's switch from reliance on foreign oil to natural gas and wind-generated power won't happen fast enough to suit him.

To promote electricity production from wind sources as a replacement for natural gas, Mr. Pickens wants government to mandate wind power, provide subsidies and exercise eminent domain powers to acquire land for transmission. That, in turn, would free natural gas to replace gasoline for large transport vehicles.

Despite claiming to prefer government not interfere in market decisions, Mr. Pickens is willing to take advantage when he can benefit from government's intrusion.

The insidiousness of government intrusion in the market is that it often benefits someone. But always at someone else's expense.

[Niteranger68]

Personally, I prefer Slim Pickens energy plan: nuclear.

Heck, I'm more inclined to support Nose Pickens plan and I don't even know what it is.

[Ukiapah Heep]

It's not officially a scam until the Clintons endorse it.

[pabianice]

Boone’s plan would double his fortune using your money. What an altruist.

[carcraft]

I to favor a balanced approach. I also favor coal gasification, an established technology. We have enough coal to run America for 250 years according to the Gov of Montana. I wondered why we weren't pursuing this then I found out that by law the Federal government can't purchase gasoline produced from coal! The government seems to screw up every thing. Here in Georgia a loon bat judge block a coal plant because of CO2 emissions which aren't regulated. She has no bases in law for her decision!!

[iopscusa]

Picken’s Scam is right, everyone needs to read this:
It shouldn’t sit well with the rest of us either. Pickens has gamed Texas for his own ends, and now he’s trying to game the rest of us, too. Worse, his gamesmanship includes lending his billionaire resources, prominent stature and feudal powers bestowed upon him by the Texas legislature to help the Greens gain control over the U.S. energy supply. ———————————————————————————————————————— Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and DemandDebate.com. He is a junk science expert, and advocate of free enterprise and an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

[taildragger]

T Boone's windmills can produce the juice, but the spikes to the grid are not good. Without getting into the details, I heard that the wind picked up recently and one utility had to drop a coal fired plant and they were ticked.

Until a Battery breakthrough occurs, (i.e. Lithium-Ion a-la the Chevy Volt or beyond that) it may not be a viable option.

I recently spoke with some famous aero-engineers off the record, who are well versed in many subjects and the green energy arena came up. independent of my ideas, they also stated without prompting that a storage system for green power is needed to make it viable. Just my 2 cents worth.....

[PugetSoundSoldier]

If Pickens is willing to forgo the $23.37 per megawatt hour subsidy, then fine.

But he won't. Wind power is a LOSER of money unless you get the subsidy. Pickens is looking to make MORE money from the subsidies on his windmills than he will from direct sale of the electricity.

This is just another way for him to make a few more billion dollars...

[snoringbear]

“Few of the politicians or the Washington elites understand this.”

Oh they understand for sure. However, as with the ethanol scam, wind is a sell-out to the Greenies and their “willing idiots” as the commies used to call their devotees back in the day.

Btw, this is not getting much press but much of Pickens land that he would use for wind produced electricity also sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer which is the largest reservoir of underground water in the U.S. Pickens also has a plan to sell this water to soon to be water starved metroplexes. So, these corridors purchased via Eminent Domain legislation could also be used to lay pipe lines to deliver this water. T. Boone is a wily old coyote for sure...

[shove_it]

The $23.37 per mega watt hour subsidy you cite is presented in Table 35 on page 16 of this 20 page document. You omitted the important detail that this subsidy is based upon production of electricity. A production subsidy comes at the end, after multi unsubsidized $billions of risk equity is invested in development of the production facilities. Also, the subsidy comes in the form of tax rebates, rather than a direct payment of taxpayers' dollars.

A useful graphic presentation of the total subsidy issue comparing fossil fuel, nuclear and wind is shown here:

http://www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets/Subsidy.pdf

Biased opinion pieces like the one posted here and many others posted on FR, falsely portray the subsidy issue.

[PsyOp]

[ken21]

i didn’t know that the fed govt can’t purchase gasoline made from coal.

you ought to post something on that.

thanks.

[4Liberty]

Re: Pickens.

Excuse me for being dull, but — if someone earns wealth from voluntary past investments and effort, why not buy legal rights to market water and wind?

Sorry to be dense. I just worry that at times, we confuse socialistic “lobbying” with legitimate, smart petitioning of govt. by private investors to obtain rights to provide more services via purchases of private or public (read: unowned) land, resources.

If real subsidies are expected from this outcome, I take it back however.

4L

[VaBthang4]

:o)

[kellynla]

Pickens is looking for the government(your, my & everyone else’s tax dollars) to build transmission lines for his windmills...and we’re talking TRILLIONS!

It’s been a long day for me but if you do a little searching you’ll find a few articles I’ve posted on Pickens and his windmills...a lot, lot, lot of money for less than 2% of our energy needs... GO NUCLEAR! 24/7 electricity...something windmills will NEVER be able to provide...NEVER!

[shove_it]

>>”...why not buy legal rights to market water and wind?”

That's what he did. It's a twofer. And he got zero subsides for it. I'd do the same if I had the $, wouldn't you? Are you people communists?

[4Liberty]

I’m not sure what kind of subsides he angling for, if any. That’s why I ask.
I assume most people are corrupt bass turds. Keep looking for an honest capitalist. And I have met a few...

[shove_it]

Sounds good but won’t work until the greenies/nimbys, their lawyers and pet Congress crooks are rounded up and dumped in the UP of Michigan in November with a Boy Scout knife and a book of matches will nuke power ever have a fart's chance in a wind storm. See post #38 here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055809/posts

[iopscusa]

Yes Comrade, we are all now Communist. The State holds all property rights...the people are only squatters.