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Pickens Plans On Wind Power
Hugh Pickens writes "T. Boone Pickens (no relation) has launched an energy plan and social-networking campaign that calls for replacing Middle Eastern oil with Midwestern wind. The Pickens Plan would exploit the country's 'wind corridor' from the Canadian border to West Texas to produce 20 percent of the country's electricity and provide an economic revival for rural America. Transmission lines would be built to transport the power where the demand is and natural gas, now used to fuel power plants, would instead be used as a transportation fuel, which burns cleaner than gasoline and is domestic. Pickens proposed that the private sector finance the investment, which would result in a one-third reduction, equal to $230 billion, in the U.S.' yearly payments to foreign countries. Pickens has already invested heavily in wind, notably a planned 4,000-megawatt wind farm in his native Texas. 'We've got to get renewable into the mix. The problem for this country is that we're paying $700 billion — you heard that — $700 billion a year,' Pickens says. 'We can't afford that. In 10 years we'll be broke if we continue that.'"
There was a cover story on this in Business Week a few weeks ago. Pickens is facing alot of resistance from folks over his intention to put a price on drinking water. Though we pay taxes to the government for our tap water, we haven't yet directly paid a private owner for water. Pickens wants to change that; he wants to make water profitable even where it's currently (just about) free.
Harold
> The enviros will not simply stand by and permit private
> interests to carpet the front range with propellers.
Yup, to the greens there is only one solution, eliminate industrial civilization, especially the American Way of Life. New energy sources, regardless how 'green' only alow evil Americans to continue to flaunt their high standard of living.
There are ALREADY greens opposing windmills. They oppose hydro. They even find objections to geothermal and solar. All of that stuff is great when it is greens doing impractical but feel good pilot projects to show how superior THEY are... more often than not spending the hard earned tax money of the 'lessor folk' they so despise. But as soon as an alternative energy source gets close to actual unsubsidized viability they objections start.
Don't believe me? Go back and observe how every fscking one of the enviros were gushing about biofuels only a few years ago. Anyone who wasn't in favor of pissing away money on pilot plants and forcing mandates, etc just had to be in league with the oil companies. Production finally gets ramped up to non-trivial levels and now it's horrible. Duh, why da ya think those of us with a brain thought it was a dumb idea to turn our food into fuel? On to switchgrass... until it starts actually producing fuel.
Democrat delenda est
Wind power, much like cold fusion, has a lot of potential (specifically with regards to the Senate...) but has failed to deliver.
DO YOU REALLY WANT ME TO EXPLAIN THE JOKE TO YOU?
After all, I am strangely colored.