Free Republic

WASHINGTON — A leading energy developer said the United States has been excluded from Iraq's revived energy market. ShareThis T. Boone Pickens told Congress that U.S. companies were losing opportunities in the Iraqi crude oil and natural gas sectors to competitors from China and Europe. The senior executive said the United States could lose all influence in the Iraqi oil sector after the military withdrawal in 2011. "They're opening them [oil fields] up to other companies all over the world," Pickens told the Congressional Natural Gas Caucus on Oct. 21. "We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil," he...

Five years after he put his money behind the Swift Boat ads that helped tanked John Kerry’s presidential campaign, Senate Democrats gave T. Boone Pickens a warm welcome at their weekly policy lunch Thursday. Or at least most of them did. Kerry skipped the regularly scheduled lunch; his staff said the Massachusetts Democrat “was unable to attend because he had a long scheduled lunch with his interns and pages.” Sen. Al Franken managed to make time for the lunch – but then let Pickens have it afterward. According to a source, the wealthy oil and gas magnate and author of...

For 30 years, government has helped fuel wind-power research, development and deployment. The industry would not exist today without the continued generous support from (coerced) taxpayers and ratepayers because 30 years out, wind technology still isn't close to overcoming its main obstacles: it's intermittent and therefore unreliable; it's economically uncompetitive even with the largess; no sensible person wants it in his backyard. A year ago, with oil supposedly headed beyond $200 a barrel, it appeared wind power's time was at hand. And everywhere, oilman and former free-marketer T. Boone Pickens was promising energy independence through spinning turbine blades under the...

The CBS News headline proclaimed “Pickens Plan for Huge Wind Farm Blows Away,” as Texas oilman and billionaire financier T. Boone Pickens latest venture to build a huge wind farm to demonstrate the viability of alternative energy has instead become a demonstration of why such ideas are not viable. His plan was unveiled last year in the face of highest-ever oil and natural gas prices, when oil prices peaked at more than $145 a barrel and wholesale natural gas reached $47.61 per cubic meter, making his plan for a 4,000 megawatt wind power project in Pampa, Texas look very appealing....

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Wednesday he has delayed his plan to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, blaming financing problems and transmission limitations. "I didn't cancel it," Pickens said after a press conference on Capitol Hill. "Financing is tough right now and so it's going to be delayed a year or two.""I had hoped that Pampa would be the starting point, but transmission issues and the problem with the capital markets make that unfeasible at this point," Pickens said in a statement. "I expect to continue development of the Pampa project, but...

Wrapped in the cloak of environmentalism, suddenly T. Boone's business maneuvers aren't despised. This week the Senate unveiled a new piece of legislation aimed at getting natural gas powered vehicles on the road. Guess who was on hand to help the Senate promote this piece of legislation? T. Boone Pickens, the biggest booster and investor in natural gas vehicles. This got Tim Carney* at the DC Examiner all in a lather. It's not just that T. Boone stands to gain from this legislation, but it's the fact that Pickens was once thought of as a bad guy for this kind...

T. Boone Pickens, like any good businessman, can read changing economic conditions. While he spent the 1980s as a “corporate raider” and oilman, in this age of Barack Obama and Henry Waxman, he has shifted his focus to lobbyists, feel-good green messages, and technology that depends on government subsidies. The result: Taxpayers will now be subsidizing T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire—and Republicans and Democrats in Congress tell you it’s for your own good. This week, three senators proposed special tax credits that will subsidize Pickens’ latest business venture, which he calls “the Pickens Plan.” Like his previous undertakings, Pickens has...

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Wednesday said he has delayed his plans to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, due to financing problems. AP Boone Pickens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I didn't cancel it," Pickens said after a press conference on Capitol Hill. "Financing is tough right now and so it's going to be delayed a year or two." Reports on Tuesday said that Pickens had scrapped plans for the the wind farm. Pickens' company, Mesa Power, has already purchased over 600 wind turbines able to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity for the first phase of...

The White House would be wise to learn the lessons of T. Boone Pickens' wind-power failure. On Tuesday, Texas oilman and energy security proselyte T. Boone Pickens announced that he will delay, and likely permanently scuttle, plans for a 687 turbine wind project in the Texas panhandle. The demise of the project, which was supposed to be the largest in the world at a rated generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts, came when Pickens discovered he couldn't raise money to build transmission lines to carry wind energy from his remote 200,000 acres to big cities that would consume the power. Pickens...

The man backing part of the Global Climate scare can't even calculate how to place his windmills correctly, never mind his hot air about the much more complex subject, the climate. Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, Pickens said today. He's now looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines that he has already ordered. The windmills stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings. "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the oligarch said. "They've got to go someplace."...

Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines. Pickens has already ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings. AP Boone Pickens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace." Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric [GE 11.01 -0.47 (-4.09%)] (parent company of CNBC)—a $2 billion...

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens on Monday reiterated his prediction that crude oil prices would hit $75 a barrel this year as producers scale back production. Pickens said about OPEC producers: "They told you they want $75 by the end of the year, I would count on that, I believe them."

Just finished watching Larry King with T. Boone Pickens and his new dear, dear friend John Podesta. Been seeing his ads popping up again this evening as well. He told Larry he had an hour long interview with The One this afternoon and he said he was encouraged. With the Clinton consiglieries in his pocket I'd say it was a done deal already.

When history books and TV documentaries distill 2008 to its bare bones — down to the handful of people who dominated the mediasphere 24/7 — who will we remember?

[...] As the name suggests, the Camry CNG Hybrid concept transforms the stock gasoline-electric hybrid into one that runs on compressed natural gas. Why CNG? According to Chris Hostetter, Toyota's vice president of advanced product strategy, future demand for liquid petroleum will exceed supply, and automakers must look for an alternative. "We believe CNG will be one of those alternatives," he said. Indeed, it's an interesting choice. CNG burns cleaner than gasoline, producing less particulate matter, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide than its commonplace counterpart. Add the ability to run on electric power alone, and the Camry CNG...

Pickens' Wind Farm On Hold--Blames Falling Oil Prices T-Boone Pickens admits he's been hurt by falling oil prices. By Jerry Bohnen Wednesday, November 12, 2008 Billionaire oilman T-Boone Pickens admits he's been hurt by falling oil prices--so much so that he's put his massive wind-farm project on hold in the Texas Panhandle. Pickens made the revelation Tuesday while speaking in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has cut pack on his nationwide public relationscampaign encouraging people to turn to wind energy and natural gas instead of oil and gasoline. Pickens, known for his generosity to Oklahoma State University's athletic programs wanted to...

SACRAMENTO – When Hiram Johnson championed an initiative system for California nearly a century ago, he sold it as a grass-roots way to “arm the people to protect themselves.” California's 23rd governor foresaw citizen campaigns that would spring to life and put propositions on the ballot when the Legislature failed to address a pressing need. --snip-- But 97 years after Californians voted to allow themselves to put measures on the ballot, overturn laws adopted by the Legislature and oust elected officials in midterm, Johnson's experiment in direct democracy has changed dramatically. He couldn't have envisioned the multimillion-dollar campaigns for Proposition...

Reporting from Sacramento -- California's ballot is often crowded with measures known as citizen initiatives. But many of the citizens whose causes will come before voters Tuesday are not everyday Californians. International financier George Soros wants to change drug laws. Computer technology titan Henry T. Nicholas III -- who has been indicted on federal fraud and drug charges -- is pushing two measures seeking tougher penalties for criminals and expanded rights for victims. Oilman turned alternative-fuels investor T. Boone Pickens is pushing subsidies for cars that run on substances other than oil. And Peter Sperling, one of the founders of...

About half of the investors in T. Boone Pickens's energy-oriented equity hedge fund have asked to withdraw their money on the heels of losses of about 60% this year, according to people close to the matter. Mr. Pickens and his investment firm have lost $2 billion since peaking in late June, Mr. Pickens said Sunday on the CBS program "60 Minutes." His fund, BP Capital, will have about between $400 million and $500 million after expected withdrawals. It started the year with about $2 billion. A few weeks ago, Mr. Pickens moved the fund almost entirely into cash to help...

Investors Flee Boone Pickens' Hedge Fund: Report Reuters | 28 Oct 2008 | 04:54 AM ET About half of the investors in T. Boone Pickens' energy-oriented equity hedge fund have asked to withdraw their money on the heels of losses of about 60 percent this year, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people close to the matter. Pickens and his investment fund have lost $2 billion since peaking in late June, Pickens told the CBS program '60 Minutes' on Sunday. His fund, BP Capital, will have about $400 million to $500 million after expected withdrawals, the Journal said. A few...

Amid the energy crisis, Democrats are losing the high ground on the environment to a GOP that is pushing oil drilling. As the election enters its endgame, Democrats and their environmental allies face a political challenge they could hardly have imagined just a few months ago. America's growing dependence on fossil fuels, once viewed as a Democratic trump card held alongside the Iraq war and the deflating economy, has become a lodestone instead. Republicans stole the energy issue from Democrats by proposing expanded drilling -- particularly lifting bans on offshore oil drilling -- to bring down gasoline prices. Whereas Barack...

What if Obama axes his current VP choice and replaces him with T.Boone Pickens?

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...

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”...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s message on energy, already evolving in recent weeks, might have to evolve a little more. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, the speaker twice seemed to suggest that natural gas – an energy source she favors – is not a fossil fuel. “I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels,” she said at one point. Natural gas “is cheap, abundant and clean compared to fossil fuels,” she said at another. The speaker apparently was trying to contrast her support for expanded use of natural gas as a motor-vehicle fuel, and...

Federal authorities may unravel a tiny Panhandle government with far-reaching powers. The U.S. Department of Justice blocked changes to Texas law that last fall helped create the board of the Roberts County Fresh Water Supply District, a body dominated by employees of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens. Losing the district's authority could complicate Pickens' most visible means so far of running pipeline and power line infrastructure across the state. Jay Rosser, spokesman for Pickens' Mesa Water, said the decision as Mesa officials understood it did little to change the board or plans to move massive water and wind energy resources...

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.

SAGINAW - T-Boone Pickens says they're the wave of the future. But a wind turbine meant to save one Saginaw family on electricity has instead sparked a huge headache for their neighbors. "It makes a terrible air raid noise," says Debbie Behrens, about the high-pitched whine made by the turbine. "It's driving me crazy." What's worse, is that Debbie and her son Lance both say that high-pitched hum is now causing them problems, physically. "You occasionally have the dizziness," explains Lance, "The ringing in the ears, I've never experienced the ringing in the ears." It turns out, there is a...

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...

...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...

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...

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...

[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...

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Thursday crude prices may soon fall as low as $110 a barrel amid falling gasoline demand, but should not sink below $100 because the United States depends heavily on oil imports. "I don't think it'll drop below $100," Pickens told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I would say $110 is where it might go, something like that." ~snip~ Pickens' hedge fund BP Capital, which manages about $7 billion in assets, sank about 35 percent in July, according to a report this week in the New York Post. Pickens declined to comment in...

Be sure to READ THIS!!New FTC Rule Could Apply To PelosiBEHOLD the Power of the People, and the Power of  Nancy: "most open, most honest, and most ethical Congress in history"Nancy: "and Democrats promise to work together in a bi-partisan way for all Americans."What is the truth about Nancy?"Madam Speaker has a substantial amount of money invested in Clean Energy Fuels Corporation." dontgo"T Boone Pickens runs CLNE, this is the company Nancy has invested in, and apparently, the push is Natural Gas, which is the focus of the $5 billion in Ca. tax money and $5 billion in fed money...

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...

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...

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...

Pickens Gives New Meaning to "Self-Government" By Steven Milloy 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. This column previously discussed the plan’s technical and economic shortcomings and marketing ruses. Today, we’ll look into the diabolical machinations behind it. Simply put, Pickens’ pitch is “embrace wind power to help break our ‘addiction’ to foreign oil.” There is, however, another intriguing component to Pickens’ plan that goes unmentioned in his TV commercials, media...

If you watch cable TV, chances are you've seen an ad promoting T. Boone Pickens' plan for reducing the vast sums we're spending on imported oil. Hearts quickened in the Democratic Party because Mr. Pickens says in the ad: "this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of." That's what Democrats say when they block drilling off our coasts and in Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. But the budding romance cooled when Mr. Pickens made it clear he supports lifting those drilling bans. Mr. Pickens' plan has two key elements. The first is to build a massive series of...

- Jerry Taylor is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Virtually every claim made by T. Boone Pickens to justify the lavish subsidies he is seeking for his wind energy investments is flat wrong. First, oil imports are not the cause of high gasoline prices. On the contrary, oil imports serve to keep gasoline prices down. After all, we import oil for a reason -- it's cheaper than the domestic alternative. If we were to restrict our energy diet to energy produced in the United States, it would make domestic energy producers (like Mr. Pickens) far richer and energy...

Harry Reid's pal says we need to drill--in ANWR and off both coasts. Video at link

I’ve always found it tough to get too mad at T. Boone Pickens. Sure, just a few years ago he warned the world that we are at or close to Peak Oil — while simultaneously making billions of dollars betting on oil futures. Which led some to make specific comments during Congressional testimony, to the effect that his public doomsaying was a posture designed to drive the market for oil — and therefore his personal profits — higher. [snip] Boone wants America on wind-generated electricity — to solve "our oil problems." [snip] Because wind farms are an unreliable source for...

Many angry landowners have contacted us about a plan that, contrary to good public policy, will negatively impact property rights of rural Texans from Roberts to Jack County. The brand-new Roberts County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1, acting as an alter ego of businessman T. Boone Pickens and Mesa Power Pampa, LLC, has launched a private venture that may force landowners in 11 counties to submit to the power of eminent domain so they can pump water from the shrinking Ogallala Aquifer and sell wind-generated electricity. This new governmental entity is composed of only five people, all employees or...

Boone Pickens is a very smart man. He understands oil and energy better than most analysts. But, he has just made an $85 million ad buy to run the above commercial. The ad says he has a plan to solve the energy "problem". The ad states that wind power is part of his plan. What he doesn't tell you is that he is looking for huge subsides for his wind farms. When someone has a plan, they can go ahead and execute it. When someone has a plan and they run commercials to tell you about the plan, they want...

Finding direction in wind. T. BOONE PICKENS KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THE ENERGY business, and right now he's really, really into wind. His private firm, Mesa Power, is buying leases in the American heartland for a massive wind-power project whose first phase includes about 700 windmills on 400,000 acres near Pampa, Tex. By its completion in 2014, Pampa should be the world's largest wind farm, generating enough electricity to light 1.3 million homes. The legendary Texas oil man isn't alone. Some $9 billion of new wind projects boosted U.S. wind-power-generation capacity 46% last year. That, says a U.S. Department of Energy...

For most people, “Swift boat” has become a political verb, a synonym for the kind of attack that helped destroy the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004. But for a group of Vietnam veterans at the center of the attacks, it is still a fresh fight. On Friday, the group, who served with Mr. Kerry in Vietnam, sent a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman who helped finance the 2004 attack advertisements, taking him up on a challenge he issued last November: that he would give $1 million to anyone who could disprove a single...

Legendary Texas oil billionaire Boone Pickens says President Bush was wasting his time traveling to Saudi Arabia to ask for increased oil production. "The Saudis claim they have more oil," Pickens told CNBC. "They don't. The President wasted his time to go to Saudi Arabia, to say, 'Give us more oil.' They can't give any more oil...they're stacking up the money as fast as they can stack it up." Pickens expects the price of oil to continue rising. "Eighty-five million barrels of oil a day is all the world can produce, and the demand is 87 million," he said. "It's...