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Categories - Shopping - Free Online Business Help - Telecommunications Services Articles: Business - Is Boone Pickens Trying to Save the Country? On the surface, T. Boone Pickens’ energy plan
appears to be a good plan that will go a long ways towards curing
the country of its foreign oil dependency and prevent the massive
amount of money that we are sending out of the country to foreign
oil producing nations each year. It also would appear, on the
surface, that Boone is doing this for the good of the country since
Boone, at 80 years old will most likely not live to see the return
on his investment. The plan seems fairly uncomplicated. Boone wants to take the natural gas that’s currently being used to generate electrical power and transfer its use to the transportation sector eliminating as much as 20% of our oil usage for vehicles. He would replace the natural gas being used in the energy sector with wind farms. This would save us up to $300 billion per year in oil purchases and keep the money in the country where it could be spent on the cost of the conversion.
During the process, the domestic wind energy industry would be stimulated and communities and manufacturers would enjoy significant economic benefits. This stimulus would also bleed off into other renewable energy industries. We have already seen this to be the case with the wind and solar power industries growing at 30% per year. Small communities with wind farms are experiencing much needed economic growth and farmers who lease their land to power companies for wind turbine planting are beginning to buy new farm equipment with the additional income. This is obviously a good thing for the country.
Questions arise when you look at the other things that Boone Pickens is doing and how he is doing them. Boone has formed Mesa Power and Mesa Water. With Mesa Power he is using the government power of eminent domain to seize privately owned land and lay power lines from his wind farm in the Texas panhandle to Dallas. A drive from Dallas to El Paso takes about 12 hours. A number of people along this long route are being forced to go along with the plan whether they like it or not.
People have to have water and will pay whatever it costs. You can’t just start doing something like riding a bike instead of using it. With Mesa Water, Boone is using the power of imminent domain to buy up water rights to the water supply provided by the Ogallala Aquifer and construct a water pipeline along the same route from the 68,000 acres he owns in the Texas panhandle to Dallas. He now owns more water than any other person in the United States and plans on selling it to Dallas and said, at the age of 78, that he would invest $1 billion into this project over the next 30 years.
Looking at the his energy plan alone, even though Boone has vast holdings in natural gas, he is talking about using the same amount of natural gas, not more, so, there is no benefit for him personally. He even admits that the use of natural gas in transportation is temporary and only a bridge to new electric and hydrogen technology. He has spoken of this on national television saying that the need for this is much bigger than his need for personal gains.
Something curiously missing from Pickens' plan is support for the independently owned power companies who provide power for most of the rural area that the plan focuses on. These smaller utility companies are looking at rising fuel and maintenance costs on aging infrastructures and they are grasping at wind farms as a solution. There are already wind farm projects in 40 states as a result of their efforts. Supporting them would be an easy thing to do through the already existing Rural Utility Service with more low interest guaranteed loans. They don't want handouts, they always pay their bills, and they don't need or want the regulation that comes with government money in the form of a stimulus.
Then you think about what he is doing with Mesa Water and Mesa Power and you begin to wonder, if at the age of 80, he isn’t just looking to make the big deal to be remembered for. He has also more than doubled his political contributions. Then, as you find out more about Boone's investments, you learn that Nonacy Pelosi has also invested in a Boone Picken's company named CLNE. The stock gets a hit with each new announcement.
Men worship different gods. There is no doubt that our Founding Fathers tried their best to create a great country that would be long lasting for us and their names are permanently carved in history. On the other hand, John Rockefeller died knowing that, by making close to the equivalent of $1 trillion in today’s money by financing both sides of WWI, he was forever deified among his peers. Wealthy men donate millions to their favorite universities so that they will be reverently whispered about in campus hallways.
Which is T. Boone Pickens? Is this good old country boy out to quench our thirst and reduce our dependency on foreign oil or is he just trying to make the big deal that will make his name live forever? Mounting evidence favors the latter. We do not need a national energy plan that will only serve to empower the already rich and take the freedom away from our independent power companies to prosper. We don't need a bubble creating stimulus that will only serve to rob the industry of the capital it needs to expand and create technology.
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