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This is not what President-elect Barack Obama's energy and climate strategists would want to hear. It would be anathema to Al Gore and other assorted luminaries touting renewable energy sources which in one giant swoop will save the world from the “tyranny” of fossil fuels and mitigate global warming. And as if these were not big enough issues, oilman T. Boone Pickens’ grandiose plan for wind farms from Texas to Canada is supposed to bring about a replacement for the natural gas now used for power generation. That move will then lead to energy independence from foreign oil. Too good...

(AFP) – Hundreds of billions more dollars are likely to be needed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a 2030 target, according to UN estimates published on Friday ahead of global talks on climate change. The report, to be presented at the December 1-12 conference in Poznan, Poland updates 2007 estimates that said investment to mitigate carbon emissions had to be ramped up in the coming years, reaching between 200-210 billion dollars annually in 2030. The goal, in this benchmark scenario, is to reduce levels of global-warming pollution to 25 percent below 2000 levels in 2030. In the new report, the...

The use of ethanol and other renewable fuels supposedly helps gasoline burn cleaner creating less pollution. It also reduces America's reliance upon foreign oil. Last Monday the Environmental Protection Agency increased the amount of renewable automobile fuels required to be sold in the United States next year from 7.8 percent to 10.2 percent of the 138.5 billion gallons of gasoline projected to be consumed. This mandate mainly directs that higher levels of ethanol be mixed with gasoline. The higher standard is required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, a law that requires the increased use of renewable...

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2008) — Engineers and entrepreneurs are rushing to explore alternative sources of efficient and renewable energy in New Jersey and elsewhere in the country. A Rutgers School of Business—Camden professor has strong words of caution as projects involving wind farms and photovoltaic cells proliferate.With the electric-power industry poised for its most dramatic changes in decades, too little thought is being devoted to coordinating these piecemeal initiatives, warns Richard Michelfelder in a recent edition of The Electricity Journal, the leading policy journal for the electric industry.The consequence, he fears, might well be a disastrous overload of the nation’s...

Adding electricity from the wind and the sun could increase the frequency of blackouts and reduce the reliability of the nation’s electrical grid, an industry report says. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation says in a report scheduled for release Monday that unless appropriate measures are taken to improve transmission of electricity, rules reducing carbon dioxide emissions by utilities could impair the reliability of the power grid. The corporation is the industry body authorized by the federal government to enforce reliability rules for the interlocking system of electrical power generation and transmission. Such carbon-reduction rules are already in place in...

It looks like the financial wizards at Goldman Sachs are betting that the U.S. government is going to impose a cap-and-trade system for global-warming emissions sooner rather than later, despite the financial crisis shaking up the corridors of power from Wall Street to Washington. Goldman is announcing today that it will partner with Salt Lake City-based carbon-offset project developer Blue Source LLC. The company, backed by big-time private equity investors First Reserve Corp. and Och Ziff Capital Management Group, sells carbon credits. Neither Goldman Sachs or Blue Source would comment on the size of the investment, other than to say...

Yet another profile of wind crusader T. Boone Pickens aired Sunday night — this time on 60 Minutes — and it had the usual details about the 80-year-old former oil baron’s plan to get the U.S. off its addiction to foreign oil. But 60 Minutes did score an interesting tidbit about how much Pickens and his investment firm BP Capital have lost since oil and natural gas prices started dropping in July: $2 billion! The steep drop in oil and gas prices since July has cut the value of Pickens’ hedge fund in half. . . Overall, Pickens and BP...

Just about everyone knows we’ve got to change our way of life to save the planet. Isn’t it a bit odd, then, to find architects doing the same stuff they’ve always done and going around making out that they’re the eco-warriors to end all eco-warriors? Why is it that the same old glass-walled boxes and tower blocks that were invented in the energy-rich sixties and seventies can do the business for the energy-challenged noughties? Architects have discovered the magic of greenwash. The big idea behind contemporary architecture was that the “new century” (meaning the 20th) was all about the latest...

"GE slashes earnings view for 2008, but shares gain" by Marketwatch shows that General Electric is off about 38% from its high of about 42 only a year ago. Furthermore, "GE currently makes about 45% of its earnings from the financial unit, called GE Capital." From where we sit, General Electric's problems are the direct result of a management belief, as exemplified by the company's membership in the Climate Action Partnership, that the company does not have to create genuine value to earn a profit. As described by Kimberly Strassel's "If the Cap Fits: Why our CEOs are warming to...

DEVELOPMENT of alternative energy should create more than 20 million jobs around the world in coming decades as governments adopt policies to address the depletion of resources, according to a UN report. Some 2.3 million people around the world already work in alternative energy jobs with half of them in biofuels, said the report. Speedy creation of the jobs will depend on countries implementing and broadening policies including capping emissions of greenhouse gases, and the shifting of subsidies from the oil and natural gas sector, to new energy including wind, solar and geothermal power, it said. "If we do not...

Albany, N.Y. (AP) -- Connecticut and nine other northeastern states this week will take steps to check global warming by conducting the nation's first carbon auction. Environmental groups, energy producers, and government leaders will be watching closely as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative sells carbon credits in the first of a series of quarterly online auctions. The cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program, which aims to hold carbon dioxide emissions steady through 2014 and then gradually reduce them, is widely viewed as a model for future programs around the globe. The approach is patterned after the acid rain-reducing program targeting sulfur...

Excerpt of first source: Chicago Climate Exchange Names Founding Members Leaders from Automotive, Chemical, Commercial Real Estate, Environmental Services,Electric Power Generation, Electronics, Forest Products, Municipal, Pharmaceutical and Semiconductor Sectors to join North American Voluntary Private Sector Program to Reduce and Trade Greenhouse Gases (CSRwire) CHICAGO,IL - Efforts to develop market-based solutions to global warming reach a milestone today as leading U.S. and international companies and the City of Chicago announce they will be the Founding Members of Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®), a voluntary cap-and-trade program for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions. In an unprecedented voluntary action, these entities have...

MUMBAI (AFP) — The global economic downturn and the crisis in the US financial markets offers the chance for investment in green energy, former US vice-president Al Gore said Thursday. Central banks have thrown billions of dollars at the global credit storm, which has seen stock markets plunge and scalped big banks exposed to the ongoing effects of last year's collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market. Speaking via satellite-link at the launch of Live Earth India concert, where proceeds will go to solar energy projects, the environmental campaigner said the world was at a turning point. Asked by AFP...

Al Gore’s carbon trading business GIM was banked with Lehman Bros. It will be interesting to see how this will play in the future but I suspect that this increases the risk of participating in Carbon trading. Merrill Lynch, was also deeply involved in this business. Last year Lehman Brothers released a long and highly publicized report about climate change in which they preached about decarbonization, trying to make their investors keep getting high profits from the Kyoto carbon trade scheme and the support of huge public subventions. All that, of course, with the applause of the usual choir...

(Credits benefiting industry will expire unless Congress acts) Washington - Green is in these days. From large-scale wind farms to solar panels on homes, schools and businesses, the renewable-energy industry is experiencing rapid growth in Wisconsin and elsewhere. But that growth could stall next year if lawmakers in Washington fail to extend key energy tax credits that have helped fuel a rise in wind and solar power across the country in recent years. With just two weeks to go before Congress’ targeted adjournment, renewable-energy officials worry the tax credits will lapse amid election-year politics and partisan bickering. Democrats want to...

“The moment I read that paper,” the wind entrepreneur Peter Mandelstam recalled, “I knew in my gut where my next wind project would be.” I was having lunch with Mandelstam last fall to discuss offshore wind in general and how he and his tiny company, Bluewater Wind, came to focus on Delaware as a likely place for a nascent and beleaguered offshore wind industry to establish itself. Mandelstam had been running late all morning. I knew this because I received a half-dozen messages on my cellphone from members of his staff, who relayed his oncoming approach like air-traffic controllers guiding...

T. Boone Pickens, Scam Artist, Given Eminent Domain Authority in Texas!By Cary Wesberry • August 2, 2008 All-around jerk T. Boone Pickens has managed to swindle Texas into giving him eminent domain powers.  The State Legislature changed State Law allowing two residents in Roberts County to vote and create a municipal water district, thereby giving them the power to confiscate private property.  The two voters were Pickens’ wife and manager of his ranch.   Regardless of T. Boone Pickens, those responsible for this abomination in my State Legislature need to be held responsible for their probable criminal activity in working behind the backs of the People...

tax for y'all

A leading General Motors executive has called for government loans of up to $50bn to help American car markers build more fuel-efficient cars. Bob Lutz, GM's vice-chairman, warned that major US car manufacturers need the money to re-tool their factories and are unlikely to be able to raise enough capital alone due to tight credit markets. Mr Lutz's comments come against background of ongoing talks between leading US car makers and politicians in recent weeks over enhanced government backing to enable a shift to greener production. The three major US car manufacturers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, are working with the...

For Barack Obama, climate change is change we can believe in. Speakers at the Democrats’ convention this week, by and large, have taken as dim a view of fossil fuels as the Iraq war. If you were quaffing your brew at each mention of "alternative energy" from the podium, you’d have a lot of recycling to do by now. The green theme climaxes tonight, with environmental hero Al Gore setting the stage for the candidate’s address. Since he launched his campaign, Obama has offered remarkably detailed proposals and demonstrated fluency in the language of energy and carbon. He promises a...

T. Boone Pickens is up in arms over NBC's decision not to run one of his new TV ads promoting the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel, and an alternative to importing expensive foreign oil. In an e-mail to supporters Mr. Pickens is quoted as saying, "NBC is refusing to run one of our strongest ads, and I need your help in showing NBC they can't control what we can or cannot say." The new 15-second TV spot, entitled "Iran is Changing Its Cars to Run on Natural Gas," calls attention to this development by this OPEC member...

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is about to make a killing by selling water he doesn’t own. As he does it, it will be praised as a planet-friendly wind project. The basic story amounts to this: Pickens, thanks to favors from state lawmakers whose campaigns he funded, has created a new government whose only voters are two of his employers; this has empowered Pickens to more cheaply pump water from an aquifer and, by use of eminent domain, seize land across 11 counties in order to pipe the water to Dallas. To win environmentalist approval of this hardly “sustainable”...

The more you learn about T. Boone Pickens’ plan to switch America to wind power, the more you realize that he seems willing to say and do just about anything to make another billion or two.

Pelosi Investment Shows Unlikely Energy Alliance Shares Purchased In Pickens Firm; Oil Man's New Role By IAN TALLEY August 23, 2008 WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in T. Boone Pickens's Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which could benefit from legislation the California Democrat favors to boost U.S. use of natural gas. The investment is a small fraction of the Pelosis' net worth. But it highlights the unlikely alliance evolving between Mr. Pickens, an oil man with a long history of support for Republican causes, and powerful Democrats who have welcomed Mr. Pickens's...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Eight scientific organizations urged the next U.S. president to help protect the country from climate change by pushing for increased funding for research and forecasting, saying about $2 trillion of U.S. economic output could be hurt by storms, floods and droughts. "We don't think we have the right kind of tools to help decision makers plan for the future," Jack Fellows, the vice president for corporate affairs of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of 71 universities, told reporters in a teleconference on Wednesday. The groups, including the American Geophysical Union and the American...

It's amazing how ideas with no merit become popular merely because they sound good. Most every politician and pundit says "energy independence" is a great idea. Presidents have promised it for 35 years. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were self-sufficient, protected from high prices, supply disruptions and political machinations? The hitch is that even if the United States were energy independent, it would be protected from none of those things. To think otherwise is to misunderstand basic economics and the global marketplace. To be for "energy independence" is to be against trade. But trade makes us as safe. Crop...

Google, Paul Allen back geothermal startup By JOHN COOK P-I REPORTER AltaRock Energy believes it can harvest energy by fracturing rocks deep below the Earth's surface, using the heat from those rocks to create electricity. Some deep-pocketed investors -- including Google, Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers -- are big believers in the concept, too. They are among the investors leading a $26.25 million venture round in AltaRock, money that the 14-month-old company will use to test the concept at an undisclosed site next year. Sausalito, Calif.-based AltaRock, which was founded in Seattle by Susan Petty...

...in May 2007, Pelosi invested between $100,001 and $250,000 to purchase public common stock in Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corporation (CLNE). Pelosi's CLNE investment was first highlighted by the Michigan Taxes Too Much and #don'tgo blogs. CLNE is a cog in Pickens’$6 billion plan to build a massive wind farm in west Texas and to switch millions of vehicles on American roads from gasoline to natural gas. Pelosi’s CLNE purchase is listed on her most recent congressional personal financial disclosure form, which can be viewed at Opensecrets.org. A search of Pelosi’s official web site found no announcement of the investment...

As the members of the MSM continue to beat the drums for “renewable” energy, and T. Boone Pickens promises pie-in-the-sky free energy from windmills the corruption surrounding Green Energy is beginning to be revealed. Literally hundreds of billions of dollars are involved and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is only the latest to be found with her hand in the cookie jar. Here’s the unvarnished truth: the world has been getting most of its energy from fossil fuels for over a century. During the 20th century we began to see the use of nuclear energy. In the US that path to...

LAS VEGAS -- How do we make Nevada and the rest of the country more energy efficient? That's the question environmental experts and politicians are hoping to answer at a two-day summit at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Former President Bill Clinton kicked off the event Monday night with a challenge to the Silver State. The former president said the only way to get everyone on board to go green is to make one state completely clean energy self-sufficient -- and he thinks Nevada has what it takes. “Maybe what you ought to do is come out of this conference...

It is difficult to imagine a more unlikely pair of investors than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens. Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, is among the most liberal and pro-environmentalist politicians in Congress, while Pickens has long been associated with Republicans, hedge funds and the energy industry. Yet in May 2007, Pelosi invested between $100,001 and $250,000 to purchase public common stock in Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corporation (CLNE). Pelosi's CLNE investment was first highlighted by Eric Odom on the #don'tgo blog. CLNE is a cog in Pickens’$6 billion plan to build a massive wind farm...

In this year's great energy debate, Democrats describe a future when the U.S. finally embraces the anything-but-carbon avant-garde. It turns out, however, that when wind and solar power do start to come on line, they face a familiar obstacle: environmentalists and many Democrats. To wit, the greens are blocking the very transmission network needed for renewable electricity to move throughout the economy. The best sites for wind and solar energy happen to be in the sticks -- in the desert Southwest where sunlight is most intense for longest, or the plains where the wind blows most often. To exploit this...

RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama talked energy policy on Sunday with T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire oil investor who funded the "Swift Boat" attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004. Pickens, a lifelong Republican, has endorsed neither his party's candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, nor Democrat Obama in the November 4 election and wants to make energy a top campaign issue. He has advocated a plan to cut U.S. oil use by converting cars to run on natural gas. Pickens funded efforts in 2004 by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which...

John Yancey leans against his truck in a field outside his home, his face contorted in anger and pain. John Yancey doesn't like the Maple Ridge Wind Farm turbines and the deal his father signed for them. "Listen," he says. The rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines echoes through the air. Sleek and white, their long propeller blades rotate in formation, like some otherworldly dance of spindly-armed aliens swaying across the land. Yancey knows the towers are pumping clean electricity into the grid, knows they have been largely embraced by his community But Yancey hates them.

[ROBERT M. SYKES is Professor emeritus Civil and environmental engineering Ohio State University Mount Vernon] I was disappointed to see that the very large negative effects on both Ohio's economy and environment were not discussed in the July 27 article "Wind power likely to blow in," on the wind-power projects in Champaign County. The first issue is the high cost of wind power, which is about 2.5 to three times the cost of coal-generated power. Large wind-power projects exist only because of large government subsidies. Otherwise, wind power would be restricted to a few applications where the physical isolation of...

1. Introduction Background and Purpose In May 2007, Senator Lamar Alexander asked the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to develop an analysis of Federal energy-specific subsidies that provide a financial benefit with an identifiable budget impact. His request letter of May 12, 2007, provided as Appendix H, asked EIA to focus particularly on subsidies directed to electricity production, including an estimate of electricity subsidies on a per unit basis. In 2000, EIA enumerated and summarized energy subsidies and support generally; this report focuses on electricity production, specifically those subsidy and support programs that affect the production of primary fuels used to...

DALLAS, Aug 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Below is a statement issued by T. Boone Pickens following his meeting this morning with U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in Aspen, Colorado: "It was a pleasure to sit down with Senator McCain and discuss firsthand an issue that is America's top priority: ending our dependence on foreign oil, which today is approaching 70 percent. We plan on having a similar meeting with Senator Obama in the very near future. I have repeatedly stressed the nonpartisan aspects of my initiative. This is a threat to our economic and national security and something that...

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 15, 2008 02:39 PM John McCain met with T. Boone Pickens yesterday to hear the Big Wind sales pitch. Hey, why should Nancy Pelosi have all the Boone-doggly fun? Hmmmmm: T. Boone Pickens was waiting for John McCain in a small conference room at the Aspen Meadows Resort, where the two, according to Pickens, were going to be “talking about the Pickens plan.” “We’re going to have a good visit,” he added. Pickens, a famous oilman and one of America’s richest men, is now pushing a plan to drop the United States’ dependence on foreign oil...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called congressional Republicans who want up-or-down drilling votes “hand maidens of the oil companies.” Let’s call Pelosi what she is: House girl of the Big Wind boondogglers. 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 eco-fantastical 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. is a natural gas...

Webb is a senior scientist with the University of Virginia's Department of Environmental Sciences. His Web site, www.VaWind.org, addresses environmental issues associated with commercial wind energy development. Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is being disingenuous, telling one thing to the American people and another to Congress. He has repeatedly said that no government help is needed to pursue his plan to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle. Yet he is lobbying hard for extension of the Production Tax Credit and National Renewable Energy Zones -- essentially a huge tax shelter for wind industry investors and expedited...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently called congressional Republicans who want up-or-down drilling votes "hand maidens of the oil companies." Let's call Pelosi what she is: House girl of the Big Wind boondogglers.

T. Boone has re-invented himself as a green wildcatter. Can he finish what Al Gore started? T. Boone Pickens can't read his lines. Squinting at his teleprompter, he is posing in front of a mile-long ribbon of wind turbines, churning against an endless Texas sky. Pickens is in Sweetwater, a town of 12,000 that bills itself as the nation's wind-energy capital, to shoot a commercial urging Americans to put themselves on a new energy diet: cutting out imported oil—which costs $700 billion a year—in favor of domestically produced sources such as wind and natural gas. "Our dependence on foreign oil...

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...

TV commercials touting a new clean energy strategy and an environmental ballot measure in California both have one thing in common: if they succeed, they'll make investors – from "big oil" to the U.S. Capitol – a lot of money. The ads champion Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens' "Pickens Plan" to move our nation from foreign oil dependence to domestically produced wind power and natural gas fuel for automobiles. The plan is touted as a cleaner, more eco-friendly alternative to our current reliance on coal power and gasoline. The ballot initiative is California's Proposition 10, known as the California...

eek, 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. Pickens and Pelosi share the same talking points downplaying...

One of CLNE’s underwriters is WR Hambrecht and Co., owned by William Hambrecht, a leftwing activist who has given, on average, around $80,000 per year to liberal candidates and causes. It is probable that such a heavyweight in the leftist movement is also well known to Nancy Pelosi and to Harry Reid, who will be partnering with the Center for American Progress Action Fund and UNLV to host the National Clean Energy Summit on Aug. 19 with such notables as President Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado, and Texas entrepreneur...

Nancy Pelosi says that she is trying to save the planet and prevent global warming, but the reality is that, according to disclosure statements, in May 2007 she invested in T. Boone Picken’s clean energy fuels corp., CLNE, which is the sole sponsor of a proposal in California to funnel $5 billion in state funds and $5 billion in Federal funs to this corporation which will indirectly help them create a giant wind farm in the Texas panhandle. An overlooked story in November of 2007 shows that the T. Boone Pickens plan involves the private control of water, which Pickens...

When cocaine prices shot up last year, White House Drug Czar John Walters touted it as "the best evidence" that the War on Drugs was working. So when gas prices were shooting up this year, we ought to have heard cheers from those who claim we're addicted to oil. They should have pointed to those record gas prices as a sign that we're winning the war on oil addiction. But instead of celebrating, they've been gnashing their teeth. President Bush isn't leaping for joy, even though he gave the oil-addiction phrase its highest imprimatur when he used it in his...

It’s what conservative bloggers are buzzing about: the financial relationship between Do-Nothing Nancy Pelosi and Big Wind pusher T. Boone Pickens. #dontgo reports that according to disclosure statements, “in May 2007 she invested in T. Boone Picken’s clean energy fuels corp., CLNE, which is the sole sponsor of a proposal in California to funnel $5 billion in state funds and $5 billion in Federal funs to this corporation which will indirectly help them create a giant wind farm in the Texas panhandle.�Follow the money.Get the whole scoop here and here. Know your eco-cronies.***Flashback: See-Dubya asks, “Why is T. Boone Pickens...

At first glance, the energy proposals of Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens for wind power and increased gas usage sound good. "We can't drill our way out of this crises"; I happen to disagree with this statement. We still need to drill to make ourselves "independent from foreign oil." But the real issue is what is behind the clamor to expand wind power in lieu of increasing oil drilling. To understand this you have to read between the lines. Not only does Pickens' firm, BP capital, have significant investments in natural gas, but last June he announced plans to build...