Oilman comes to Chicago to plead for wind power
Oilman T. Boone Pickens will be in Chicago today at Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom at 10:30 a.m. to push his "Pickens Plan" for reducing America's dependence on foreign oil. The event is free and open to the public. Here is a look at what he'll discuss.
Q. What is the "Pickens Plan?"
A. The plan advocates using wind power to replace natural gas as the source of about 22 percent of electricity generated in the country. The natural gas could then be diverted to provide fuel for transportation, particularly the large-scale oil gobblers like buses, garbage trucks and utility trucks, according to his plan. That would ease up on the U.S. demand for oil, Pickens says. The program is described at his Web site www.pickensplan.com/theplan.
Q. Why all the sudden interest in wind power?
A. Boone believes America is slowly but surely transferring its wealth to Middle-Eastern countries and lowering its stature and security in the world. This year alone $700 billion will be sent overseas, he estimates, and he predicts oil prices will quickly triple, so the situation will only get worse. America, on the other hand, he says, is the "Saudia Arabia" of wind power with a major wind corridor stretching from Texas to the Dakotas.
Q. Won't oil consumption reduction, rather than elimination, just delay the problem?
A. Pickens has never billed the plan as a long-term solution. He believes the ultimate solution is the electric- or hydrogen-powered car, but also thinks such a car is 30 years away from market. The wind and natural gas plan is a "bridge" to that era, he says.
Q. So what's in it for Pickens?
A. Pickens' says at $4 billion in wealth and 80 years old, he doesn't need any more money and is doing this for his children and grandchildren and their generation. His Mesa Power company, however, is currently developing in Pampa, Texas, what will become the largest wind farm in North America. It could benefit from a national push for wind energy. But Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser says when people hear that Pickens has given away $700 million to charity over the last five years, and says he'll give away the bulk of his estate upon his death, it relieves them of the concern that he's just doing this out of self-interest. "This is about reducing the threat of foreign oil," says Rosser.
Q. Are there critics of the plan?
A. Some. Timothy P. Carney, editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report says having a wind-power farm owner advocate for tax breaks for wind production is about as surprising as a Kraft Foods CEO advocating for more Mac-N-Cheese consumption. He also points out that the Pampa, Texas, electric transmission line was linked with another heavy-handed Pickens plan to pump and sell water from sparsely populated north Texas to the Dallas area. The water and electric plans have now been completely decoupled, says Rosser.
Q. If the idea's so great, why does Pickens need all this political support he's drumming up? Won't the market embrace the electricity that wind produces?
A. Pickens wants to ramp up the pressure on the two presidential candidates to come up with a plan for ending dependence on foreign oil. Without that, he says, it won't get done. He also is advocating for tax breaks for wind-power production and for infrastructure for a new grid to reach the prime wind-farm areas of America. That can't happen without governmental support. Free-market economists say the government shouldn't be subsidizing certain energy fields, but Rosser points out America is already doing that with subsidies for oil drilling, and with an infrastructure investment here in the U.S., the money stays in the country and provides jobs.