The Pickens Plan

[pohibaba]

What is your guys' opinion of The Pickens Plan? If you don't know what it is it basically boils down to:

1) America is addicted to foreign oil.

2) America has the most wind potential in the entire world.

3) Use wind power to cut back on the use of oil.

4) Get people (force people?) to use natural gas.

The first point is something that I think almost everyone can agree to regardless of where you fall in politics.

The second and third points are interesting, but what he's suggesting is a trillion dollar project to implement. I'm not sure whether I would support that or not, I'm torn.

The fourth point I'm still confused about. His site (Pickensplan.org) doesn't give any real idea of how he plans on implementing this other than that he thinks it needs to get done. If he's suggesting to force people to use natural gas, the plan loses most of its appeal for me, I think, but this is something else that I'm torn on.

So, does anyone here have more information than I have about it? Is it a sound plan or is it just another crazy idea by a crazy rich old man. Also, how would you Obamaphiles attack McCain if he appointed Pickens as his Energy Czar? (Because we all know you would attack him, whether you actually meant it or not).

[Beckwin]

Pickens on Obama:

After Obama mentioned T. Boone Pickens several times in his energy speech today, Pickens -- not kidding -- had praise for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“I’m strongly encouraged by Senator Obama’s speech on America’s energy future. Foreign oil is killing our economy and putting our nation at risk," wrote Pickens, a billionaire oil man, who proposes ending America's dependence on oil by promoting renewable enegies like wind power and natural gas. Pickens was one of the principal financiers of the Swift Boat ads against John Kerry. “When I started this campaign my goal was to make this the biggest issue in the coming election and the top priority to be addressed in the first hundred days of the next administration. This issue is clearly moving up in the priority of political debate; Senator Obama’s statement is an indication that is what is indeed happening. I will continue to push this as a priority for the rest of the year.”

Earlier, in Obama's speech, the Illinois senator said, “We can’t simply pretend, as Sen, McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem,” Obama said. “T. Boone Pickens is right. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions.”

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archi...4/1246524.aspx

Pickens is a dick but he knows a good business opportunity when he sees it. He can "force" people to use natural gas by making it cheaper (OMG FREE MARKET STUFF RITE?). It's a big gamble to implement wind on a large scale but the potential is certainly there.

[pohibaba]

He can "force" people to use natural gas by making it cheaper (OMG FREE MARKET STUFF RITE?).

If that's his plan then I'm all for it. Do you have any links that says how he plans to go about doing this?

[Beckwin]

well he's not a politician, I don't think he was supposing he could enforce regulation.

[Plow]

I would just like to say that I drove past some huuueg wind farms driving out to Denver and back (in Kansas).


They are freaking amazing, and really kind of intimidating in just how massive they actually are as well as how damn many of them are stretching literally as far as you can see.

Pretty crazy stuff.

[pohibaba]

Well, I don't think he plans to do most of this stuff on his own. I think he's just trying to make this as the focus of the Presidential campaign, and of the newly-elected President's first 100-day plan.

[Enkidu]

I don't take any "let's get off of foreign oil" plan seriously unless it includes nuclear power. And yes it's expensive as hell, but only because there is so much red tape. Cut that away and adopt policies like France or Japan have and we'd be set.

[Kyreth]

Some of his earlier support for other "projects" makes me a mite leery here (Hello, Swift Boat), but energy = money. Wind is relatively untapped, a renewable source of energy, therefore in the end it's cost-effective to "mine" for a source of electrical power.

And the more alternatives we have to burning oil for electricity, the less of it we need. I'm pro-nuclear as well, but the more cards America can play, the better.

(In before Yugioh jokes)

[BarthelloSylph]

I love this guy. Someone who is willing to spend lots of money to make shit happen. Maybe this guy should be president.

[evilpaul]

America needs to end its addiction to foreign bananas and coffee too. Erect a huge wall around the country and keep all those evil foreign goods out of the country.

Trade is vile and must be stopped, it shouldn't be limited to just oil.

[Ashira]

There was some book... blah. I can't recall title/author now, and I threw out the excerpts I got in my Critical Thinking class last year... the instructor had mentioned it to us. It basically outlined and proved that we could be oil-free now... gdi i'm going to go nuts until I find it. I know the guy had a website based around it too... I either have to assume it was somehow negated/disproven or just basically blown off as a bunch of schlock because it would cost too much or something, that the book didn't get more press or something.

That's the part I really hate though, when gov't starts bitching about how much stuff would cost to change. It's not like we're not already spending oodles of money, it's just if we try to change the way we do things the money will go somewhere other than it does now, and god forbid the already rich people don't just keep raking in money and getting richer. More important to keep them happy now than to worry about whether or not future generations will be able to live at all. Blah blah idealist rhetoric, blah blah utopia, blah blah etc. I'm tired.

[Day]

We always have money for war though! Wooo!

[Amele]

America needs to end its addiction to foreign bananas and coffee too. Erect a huge wall around the country and keep all those evil foreign goods out of the country.

Trade is vile and must be stopped, it shouldn't be limited to just oil.

overconsumption of Bananas (probably) doesn't have the potential to cause the downfall of industrial civilization as we know it.

Coffee might..

..but fortunately for us it only take 15 minutes to cook before it's ready for our use, instead of 15 millenia.

[evilpaul]

Three things:
Climactic, civilization-shattering, doomsday scenarios tend to not play out because they usually require that people don't change what they're doing in the future when it no longer makes sense to continue.

When oil is more expensive than other energy sources people will use something else. It's never going to "run out."

Non-problems like a country not being totally self-sufficient with respect to easily obtainable commodities that are available on an international open market aren't going to keep me up at night.

[Kyreth]

I love this guy. Someone who is willing to spend lots of money to make shit happen. Maybe this guy should be president.

Not at all. Politics is the bane of effective implementation of anything like that. It's one of those things where the politicians should stick to as much a hands-off policy as possible.

[Amele]

Three things:
Climactic, civilization-shattering, doomsday scenarios tend to not play out because they usually require that people don't change what they're doing in the future when it no longer makes sense to continue.

When oil is more expensive than other energy sources people will use something else. It's never going to "run out."

Non-problems like a country not being totally self-sufficient with respect to easily obtainable commodities that are available on an international open market aren't going to keep me up at night.

you are familiar with Easter Island right?

and this isn't climactic, it's rather, well, Climatic as a matter of fact.

and oil is in just about everything we use today and it's nonsensical to be burning it.


as for being non-self sufficient, you're right! there's nothing wrong with us importing oil; there is something wrong with our stupid use of it.

[Churchill]

Foreign oil isn't killing our economy lol.

[Amele]

Foreign oil isn't killing our economy lol.

the fact that our entire country is basically one big liquidity trap sure is though

[Trichocyst]

The Pickens Plan conjures up the following image for me:

http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/wp-conte...g-the-bomb.jpg

On topic, I'd love to see alternative energy!

[Nighty]

1) America is addicted to foreign oil.

2) America has the most wind potential in the entire world.

3) Use wind power to cut back on the use of oil.

4) Get people (force people?) to use natural gas.

I agree with #1. #2, I will agree with it to an extent needs to be verify (for my curiosity). #3, is a great idea on paper; however, like the OP says it will be costly so I am unsure if that will happen very soon (and if it does). The fourth one like Obama said for his Energy Plan to get rid of this country oil-dependency and have more pulled in gas station and hybrids on the road. (Those rebates sounds promising and tax credits).

Note: the following is NOT a fact. It was an idea and opinion a friend of mines has. The idea seems like good idea but I am unsure about it.

My friend told me that the US is getting more oil from foreign countries and saving our resources in Texas because once the natural resource (oil) is drained from the foreign countries, they will need to buy from us. This will cause the US to have a monopoly on it.

want to see what everyone on BG things about that "idea".