The Pickens Plan...energy solutions?

I am not knocking the guy, but he knows how to promote exactly where he has interests. If we can use wind power, and natural gas to reduce dependence on foreign oil, great...but keep in mind the man behind the message.

 

Exactly, he is not performing a public service, he is trying to fill his wallet.

Like GE holding numerous patents on "green" Tech, and then running " a week of green" specials on their NBC affiliated channels.

 

Any guy that has given half a billion dollars to philanthropic enterprises has immediate credibility and I don't think anyone should just assume a guy like that is trying to line his pockets unless you actually are able to explicitly connect A to B to C, which nobody in this thread has done.

However, his plan may be misguided for a number of reasons.

 

Carnegie and Rockefeller gave away hundreds of millions, too.

Specifically, Carnegie was a huge pioneer in the steel industry and it's many uses. If you look back, for a while around the turn of the 20th century we were dependent on foreign iron and steel for a majority of our market. It was Carnegie that conveniently found and implemented solutions to switch the country from iron to steel and wean us from foreign products. Doesn't mean he wasn't 'looking out for #1', as it were. I would suspect the same was the case here as well.

 

For wind power to generate 20% of the country's energy, we would have to sacrifice tremendous amounts of real estate, including federally protected land, to set up the necessary wind farms. The return on investment is absurdly low.

Natural gas is fine, but good luck getting that past the envirowackos.

Back to the realm of realistically feasible alternative energy. Nuclear power is clean, safe, and efficient, but good luck getting a permit to build one--then good luck getting through the lawsuits to block it.

 

I think the guy is right in his thinking. We need to think outside the box here. I don't care if its a combination of weeds, Biotech, wind power, Nuclear, natural gas, or hydrogen out of water and baking soda; we are in grave trouble. For the sake of our children, grandchildren, and countless others I, for one, am willing to at least listen to any wacko idea that has merit. Don't forget what seems wacko today will be normal or outdated 100 years from now.

Sorry Desides but with gas climbing to $5.00 a gallon the time for "Realm of Realistically feasible" just took a flying leap into Grand Canyon on a wing and a prayer!!

 

I don't know the specifics, but I doubt that's possible for a variety of reasons; legal disputes over who owns the land for starters, potential lawsuits over the safety of food grown literally next to power currents, slim profit margins, and again, the land required to generate 20% of our energy through wind power is just absolutely immense. We're talking state scale.

You tell me. They're opposed to procurement of natural gas with every bit the venom they normally reserve for oil drilling.

 

There is a lot of land that could be used which is of little agricultural value particularly in hilly or mountainous land.

.Having said its improbable that wind power will ever fill 20 pct of our needs.

Gas and nuclear power seems to be methods that could bide us over until such time as we have a viable ,clean and renewable energy sources available.

However both are based on finite sources of energy.There is only so much Uranium and gas available.

 

The Pickens plan

Interesting.

 

Sorry, didn't see it!

 

He also said he was a lifetime oil man. Guess there is a big difference between oil men and oil companies!!

 

The biggest thing is that he said it was a 10 year immediate impact plan to reduce foreign oil dependence. His plan calls for diverting natural gas from generating electricity for use as motor fuel and then replace the gas generation with wind power. that is a fast way to halve the foreign oil, near term and all the while developing the alternate methods. at least his interests are just not all in oil.

 

It doesn't have to all come from land windmills. The first off shore wind farm in the country was just approved 12 miles off the coast here.

 

I saw an interview with him on one of the morning shows last week. They asked if money was a motive. He said that he was a 80 year old with a net worth of 3 billion dollars. He said the didn't need the money -- and you know what? I believed him.

 

Because at present, the areas that "need" alternative energies, have sprawled far enough out that wind farms will have a difficult time meeting the needs of a NYC or even a Tampa.

And the unsaid play here is that Pickens has also bought most of a aquafer, and intends to ship that water out of the wind farm region and into the Metroplex, meaning the area where the wind farm is will be bereft of water.

Pickens hijacked a local water board filling it with cronies to implement the plan, as the old proverb states "Fish see bait, not hook"

 

Yup, there are ways of oil men making money on something besides oil. I put alot of the blame for our mess with the oil companies, not the oil men, who are selling their oil to the companies. These are the guys squelching alternate progression.

 

Why? I'm not opposed to alternative energy, the US infrastructure is not designed to fill tanks with LP, and wind farms are not exactly proven tech either.

I like the McCain plan to switch the largest autofleet in the US to LP, the federal government has more vehicles then any other single entity, such a plan is workable and would make a dent in the use of gasoline, and it would not require a re-tooling of our infrastructure, we have 169 million cars or more, a statiscally insignificant number of them run on lp gas, how would any plan account for that many cars outside of banning non LP gas vehicles?

For me, Nuclear and Clean(er) Coal make far more sense then pie in the sky..

 

Why do I believe he says that he is 80 years old and, with a 3 billion net worth, that his primary goal in this venture is not to become wealthier?

Was the the question?

 

Indeed, why would Pickens do this if his own profit was not involved? Is he giving the power and water away to the metroplex?

 

We'll see, the devil is always in the details, look at the proposed wind farm off of Cape Cod and the opposition to it and who is doing the opposing.

I would call piping the water into the Dallas metroplex acting as if he owns all of the water in the Ogallalla aquifer.

After all, you can only sell what you own..right?

Non-sequitur CNC, but I'll play along, "if" the Bushes have done a terrible job in Florida, then it would make sense to avoid the same thing happening in TX, if the Bushes have not done a bad job in FL, then it would make sense to see what if anything they did correctly in FL, either way, the packaging and shipping of water is an issue in this, especially in view of Picken's subverting the local water board to do so.

 

He said in another interview that he was not in the venture to lose money and I would assume that his investors would like to make some money but for him personally, he takes responsibility at an oil man as well as points the finger at the government over the past 40 years for not enacting a plan to stop this spiral we are into now.

He currently is heavily invested in natural gas and wold like to see that resource used more for transportation fuel and use wind to take relieve the burden elsewhere.

Exactly "why" do I take him at his word? ...just a hunch bro and nothing more. I look at the vast amounts of his wealth he has given to other causes and ask, "what was his profit motive?" When I do that, I come up short for an answer there too. Sometimes people just choose to do the right thing and take it at face value.

 

Ehh. maybe too much cynicism on my part Bro, after the Clinton Years and the Bush Years, cynicism should come back into vogue IMO, and Pickens "40 years as an oil man" misses his 15 year stretch as a corporate takeover specialist and green mailer, Pickens knows how to squeeze a buck out of a situation, at least that is his track record.

And IMO, Pickens is pointing his finger in the wrong direction, that is to say, it's not Government that is the soloution, Government is the problem, we've yet to build a new refinery or nuclear power plant nor drill for more oil because of the Government, not in spite of them..

 

While I agree with some of what you say, you are full of cynicism.

Who cares if Pickins makes money if it truly helps get us out of the mess we put ourselves in. And while you are somewhat right about Government being the problem its really the radicals within that are making it so hard to get things done.

Mr. Kennedy doesn't want his view blocked by windmills; of course at 12 miles out you would have to be in a boat just 2 miles from them to see them but who cares about such a mute point?

 

True enough but if Kennedys eyes are as bad as mine he won't see them even if they are up close and personal.

 

According to Fmr Senator Heflin

 

Shssssssss! Just how do you think I win those matches!

 

Even so, only the top half would be visible and then on clear day only. Even so, it wouldn't anything that would vividly stand right out. that was one of the concerns here before the turbines were approved.

 

Remind me NOT to shoot against you!

 

Seems Mr. Pickens ain't the only Texas Oil man interested in Wind power and Texas is moving right along while the rest of us are sucking wind. No pun intended!

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/08/60070

 

At 400 ft tall, they will be visible from about 27 miles away.

 

You guys are just no fun at all. Should be ashame picking on an old man like me!

Lol Marty I saw Pickens on TV tonight, I like this guy.