Posted on 08/13/2008 5:13:58 AM PDT by kellynla
Fellow Oklahoma native T. Boone Pickens is back in the news and hitting the airwaves with an energy idea that I believe is pure common sense.
Pickens believes, like I do, that as Americans continue to suffer from high gas prices, we need to take advantage of our abundant, domestic supply of natural gas for use as a transportation fuel. The promise of natural gas as a mainstream transportation fuel is achievable today -- not 15 or 20 years from now. From Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered cars, to semi-trucks running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), no other commercially viable fuel burns cleaner.
America has massive reserves of natural gas. The latest report (Sept. 2007) from the Potential Gas Committee at the Colorado School of Mines identifies 82 years of natural gas supply at current rates of production. Canada's reserves hold an additional 40 years' supply.
Raymond James Equity Research recently reported that they hold a "bearish outlook for U.S. natural gas prices." After examining the future supply of domestic production, they released a May 19, 2008, energy report which concluded, "...we continue to see unprecedented growth in U.S. gas production that will eventually overwhelm the U.S. gas markets."
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
I wonder what Inhofe thinks of this.
Pelosi, Pickens and the Corruption of Green Energy
The Virginian ^ | 8/13/2008 | Moneyrunner
Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 8:08:53 AM by moneyrunner
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2061059/posts
Ah so!
It seems T. Boone Pickens is not the disinterested environmental pioneer that his ads make him out to be. Michelle Malkin exposes the grand scale corruption that is behind Nancy Pelosi’s desire not to drill for more oil. It seems that she has stock in companies that create and run wind farms – T. Boone Pickens companies.
Though she seemingly backtracked on labeling drilling a “hoax” this week, Pelosi refuses to consider GOP energy proposals that don’t include massive government subsidies for so-called eco-alternatives that have never panned out.
Which brings us to Madame Speaker’s 2007 financial disclosure form. Schedule III lists “Assets and ‘Unearned Income’” of between $100,001-$250,000 from Clean Energy Fuels Corp. — Public Common Stock. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) is a natural gas provider founded by T. Boone Pickens. Yep, that T. Boone Pickens — former oilman turned wind-power evangelist whose ads touting a national wind campaign are now as ubiquitous as Viagra promos.
It seems a another Pickens company, Mesa Power is becoming the biggest owner and operator of wind farms in the country.
Dallas-based Mesa Power LLP, a company created by energy executive T. Boone Pickens, has placed an order with GE to purchase 667 wind turbines capable of generating 1,000 MW. GE plans to deliver the 1.5 MW wind turbines in 2010 and 2011.
So those T. Boone Pickens “public service announcements” are anything but. They are ads for his company. And with the blatant connivance of Democrat Speaker Pelosi, he’s reaching in your pocket and mine for subsidies for his projects. With literally billions of taxpayer dollars involved, this is corruption on a grand scale; making the government graft in the Mexican oil industry small in comparison.
This is “Teapot Dome” writ large.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneyrunner.blogspot.com ...
Hearings!We have to demand hearings!!Bombard Boehner!!!
Yet another mad money chaser on the T. Bone Express.
I'm certain we will have ample natural gas stations to enable us to fill up, and untill that comes along we can always place a wind turbine on our vehicles.
I'm sure the increase in insurance costs for 150 million Compressed Natural Gas bombs driving around will be negligable.
Of course you will also have to get a F.B.I. authorizing permit proving you aren't a terrorist, with designs on blowing something up.
Has everyone gone insane, or just me?
Pickens assassinates his own character with his actions. All you have to do is look into his plan and see what he is really intending to do with the help of the Texas Legislature.
What Pickens doesn't tell you is the cost of building the infrastructure to distribute CNG for transportation will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and will take decades to accomplish. Meanwhile, we have upwards of a trillion barrels of domestic oil that our Congress is blocking us from harvesting and refining.
Another thing that Pickens doesn't tell you is how CNG prices will spike during the change over. Sure, CNG is cheap now, but we all know supply and demand is a law, not a suggestion.
Pickens' plan, which would be more aptly called a boondoggle, is designed to make him an even wealthier man than he already is. There are also some hidden agendas behind his plan, such as sucking up all the water rights he can to the Ogallala aquifer and using the transmission line corridors to build massive water pipelines, that he controls, to sell water to thirsty cities like Dallas and Ft. Worth.
On the surface, Pickens' plan sounds good, but a little more research on your part will quickly show that it isn't what it appears to be and that has nothing to do with assassinating anyone's character.....
LP is not the same as CNG or LNG.
I defer to Thermalseeker in post #8.
The ignorance on this subject has me wanting to chew nails.
Pickens’ operations are great and good American Capitalism at work, except the part about securing government money for his enterprise. That part and the ardent way in which he pursues it indicates that his “alternatives” are not economically efficient compared to oil and he is relying on sucking tax payer money to make his business work. That one feature is what tells me that it is simply a Boonedoggle based on political corruption. Instead of solving our problem it will exacerbate it by diverting further resources to a non-economically efficient solution.
LLS
I don't necessarily agree with Inhofe or Pickens that CNG has a place in fueling the US fleet. But it definitely has a place for fleet operators and certain individuals.
As for pricing, a world market for natural gas is being built, and until that is done, there is going to be price volatility.
As for the WORLD price of oil, the notion that you can solve that problem by producing the world's most expensive oil is bad logic.
When you say "he", don't you mean he and over a 100 landowners?
When you say "sucking up", don't you mean permitted by the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District.
If you look at the facts, whether it is groundwater or surface water, most of it is used for irrigation.
Being as how your from a Tenn, I doubt that you know much about Prior Appropriation water rights, the Rule of Capture, and how Texas regulates groundwater.
Has Inhofe ever tried to fill up a natural gas tank? That nozzel end gets frost bitten cold.
It's pretty good though, I saw an engine taken apart after running 100,000 miles on it, still looked brand new and clean as a whistle.
Gasoleean could do the same with High Pressure Fuel injection, but that would create great MPG, that's not what Big/Gov/Oil wants.
You're absolutely right, I don't follow Texas law. I have, however, been following the sorted tale of Pickens' wind farms and that lead to the discovery of his water rights acquisitions. Pickens has indeed been buying up land, $100 million worth, with water rights to the Ogallala Aquifer, and has used his influence with the Texas Legislature to create a municipal water district in Roberts County. You see, with all these water rights he has to have a way to transport the water to buyers. Forming the municipal water district comes with a few perks, like the power of eminent domain.
In addition to this, earlier this year the Texas Legislature, at Pickens urging, changed your laws to allow renewable energy projects (like Pickens’ wind farm) to obtain rights-of-ways by piggybacking on a water district’s eminent domain power. So Pickens can now use his water district’s authority to condemn land for his future wind farm’s transmission lines, as well as his water pipelines.
So, a private, for profit company, owned by Pickens, now has access to eminent domain powers to take your land to pad his pocket and their ain't squat you can do about it. That isn't troubling to you? Maybe it will be when they come knocking on your door like Armstrong Energy Resources came knocking on mine and my neighbors here in SE Tennessee about 8 years ago.
Armstrong wanted to build a peak production pump storage electricity generation facility, similar to TVA's Raccoon Mountain project, about 4 miles from my home. TVA had already studied this location, and the project, along with 62 other sites here in the Tennessee River Valley, and determined that it was not feasible or needed. Details of TVA's studies are available in their "2020" report.
Eleven power line corridors, each 2000' wide, were slated to be seized by Armstrong. One of these two thousand foot wide corridors included about 25 miles of highly desirable bluff property along the edge of part of the Cumberland Plateau. This is prime, $250,000/acre real estate and includes the home I built with my own hands.
Our county "officials", much like your State Legislature, pledged my home and land, along with my neighbor's homes and land for this project and it's power line corridors without bothering to ask us what we thought about it. The Armstrong folks had ZERO track record for building such projects, just as Pickens has ZERO track record building wind farms or water utilities. Fortunately, and without any help whatsoever from our then Congresscritter, Zach Wamp (RINO), we were able to show, in court, that not only could Armstrong never pay for the project from operational receipts, but the plan was to stick the tax payers of this area with the bill, not only for the project itself, but for all the schools that would need to be built to educate the kids of the transient workers that would be needed to build the project.
Armstrong claimed in court that the project would bring jobs to the region, but the truth is the skilled labor to build such a project does not exist here in sufficient numbers. Just like all the TVA projects that have been built in my area, the Armstrong project would be built by transient workers, most of whom rent when here working, thus paying no property taxes. The finished project would only employ 10 people, mostly in low skilled, low paying menial jobs.
The same sort of thing is coming to Texas, partner, courtesy of Mr. T. Boone Pickens.....can you say "Kelo?"
Is it a better alternative to buy cheap oil from Middle Eastern muzzies, many of whom would love to see you and me as slaves under Sharia law?
Is it a better alternative to buy cheap oil from the Russians?
Is it a better alternative to buy cheap oil from a hopelessly corrupt Mexico, whose uniformed troops are making daily incursions across our southern border and who are firing on our Border Patrol Officers on an almost daily basis?
The bottom line is we simply cannot continue to buy 70% of our oil from foriegn countries that seek to destroy the USA. Doing so is not only a serious threat to our pocketbooks in the short term, but is also a serious threat to our national security in the long term.....
Mesa Water is composed of many land owners who are authorized to legally gather the water. Then there is the water delivery district of which you and others have spoken.
You are correct that the lege made some changes to regs to allow this to happen, but that probably had more to do with the power end of it and the nature of a multi-modal corridor.
One thing you can be certain of. Demographic projections indicates that Texas is going to need lots more water and power(and roads). They will do what is needed.
As for the need that DFW or SA might have for the Mesa water, that is uncertain. Even Pickens admits that. The fact that the PUC has authorized transmission lines certainly undermines Pickens' need to build power lines. We will just have to wait and see who gets the contract on that. For a fact, in Texas, the HL Hunt family is a bigger dog than Pickens.
DFW's first option is the new lake in east Texas, but USFWS has their nose in that. The second option is the OK water, and the lawsuits on that have begun. If you don't like Pickens' water, you will be offended by importing water from OK. But, all options are on the table.
No sir, Pickens' efforts are a matter of public record. If Pickens' two ventures aren't tied together it sure is funny how his water district efforts are happening in the same areas where his wind farm boondoggles are being built. If you are saying that your own state's public records are filled with misinformation, that is another matter entirely.
You are correct that the lege made some changes to regs to allow this to happen, but that probably had more to do with the power end of it and the nature of a multi-modal corridor.
Precisely my point. The Texas State Legislature is giving eminent domain rights, through the creation of a water municipality, to a guy with no history of ever building or running a water company. Then, they rewrite the law to allow electrical transmission lines to be piggybacked onto water line rights-of-way to Pickens' advantage. How can you say they are not related?
Couple that with the boondoggle that is wind power in general, and WA-LA! You Texans will be giving up your land for power line corridors tied to a generating facility owned by a private citizen that is such a poor source of energy you will go dark when the wind doesn't blow. Nuclear and coal make much, much more sense, no matter how you look at it.
We must put our efforts and money into projects that will actually work for our long term energy supply, not into peak pump storage facilities, wind farms, and CNG wet dreams that are designed to milk as much money as possible from the Fed and private investors in order to pad a wealthy man's pockets, with the bulk of the bill being layed at the feet of the taxpayers. T. Boone Pickens is a 21st century snake oil salesman, plain and simple.
The other point I was making is Pickens isn't the only one who is bribing politicians for eminent domain rights, thanks to the Kelo decision by the SCOTUS. It's happening all over the country and, more often than not, it is not for the better good of the community as a whole, as eminent domain is intended and described in the law. Rather, it's all about pouring cash into an already stuffed pocket at the expense of private land owners and tax payers.
If T. Boone Pickens wants to pursue these sorts of projects, more power to him. (no pun intended) He should, however, do it with his own money, or with willing investor's money. He also should have to take the same route as anyone else when obtaining rights of way, by actually buying the land he seeks, not by bribing willing politicians for eminent domain rights, and in particular, by bribing corrupt Republican politicians in the Texas Legislature.
Make no mistake, I am all for private ventures to bring goods and services to the public. I amassed my own wealth doing precisely that. I draw the line, however, when I see efforts like Pickens'. This issue should be solved in the free market, not by propping up nonviable wind farms by giving away eminent domain in shady back room deals or by giving tax breaks or by scamming the public at large into thinking that we cannot solve our energy woes by tapping our own oil resources, all while waving the American flag.
Without private property rights, freedom aint' so free, is it?
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