The Pickens Plan Flounders

Forbes and the Wall Street Journal have been warning about this and the green blogs have been discussing this as well for some time now. This morning's New York Times carries a piece that shows where Boone has hit a rock: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pickens-delays-his-plan/ This is unfortunate, to say the least, and this blog did talk about OPEC lowering the price of crude to kill the plan. Hopefully, Boone will continue to plug ahead and actually sell electric cars etc and gain something from the publicity that he has achieved so far. If he really has any intention of making money and helping the environment, he would certainly do something in this direction.

Let's see what steps he takes in the days ahead. Actions speak louder than words.

T Boone Pickens gets it in the Solar Plexus

Green Daily has a detailed post on how cheap oil has affected T Boone Pickens' "Pickens Plan." The link is here: http://www.greendaily.com/2008/10/28/will-the-pickens-plan-survive-the-oil-price-collapse/ Boone would have to have been stupid to think that the Arabs would not try to drown him. I still think that he could get his own back if he were to use his very significant fortune to push the sale of renewable energy equipment abroad, using US Exim Bank funds to do this. I do know that Pakistan is looking seriously at importing large wind turbines, both on and offshore, and that India and Sri Lanka are likely to look for Solar Thermal Powerplants soon. If Boone were to sell these, he would push the price of oil and other fossil fuels like coal down even further, hurting the people out to drown him. He could also sell very highly fuel efficient vehicles like the Aptera cars and the Norwegian Think electric city cars in Texas and other parts of the USA - there are people who will buy these and who have the money to buy environment friendly vehicles. He could also promote environment-friendly housing and retrofit solar panels, for example, on existing homes.

Will he do this? I am not sure if he will . . . Let's hope that he does because that is the only way he could keep his plan from collapsing and ending up as yet another forgotten experiment, albeit one that was good intentioned.

Edit: Treehugger says that the publicity generated by the Pickens Plan seems to be working as far as creating awareness is concerned: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/poll-shows-pickens-publicity-plan-working.php Now, how about capitalizing on it, Boone, by selling more environment-friendly stuff? Huh? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink . . .

Some More Interesting Links

It is always refreshing to see more and more information about efforts in the field of renewable energy come out - with more people working in this area, something decent cannot but be in the offing. Ecogeek talks about an Indian Green community in Kolkata: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1948/83/ There is also an excellent analysis in easy to understand terms of the problems with the pricing of electric cars (and no, I don't mean quadricycles like the Reva G-Wiz) at: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1939/

There is also the matter of using sewage to power homes. There have been experimental gas collection centers at some bus termini in Tamilnadu from what I have read in the Indian media but there has been no systematic attempt at using human poop to do anything useful. In a country of 1.2 billion people squeezed into an area a third the size of the USA, this could be a fantastic idea. If the governments of the various states and the centre offered the use of toilets free to the poor, then this would also make the country vastly cleaner. Check out the Ecogeek Link: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1931/77/

Finally, an interesting New York Times piece on the Pickens Plan: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27friedman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Yes, he is planning to show fossil fuel the fist. Life is good!

T Boone Pickens puts His Money Where His Mouth Is - Now Will the Bozos Who have been Slamming Him Please Shut Up?

In a world of loudmouths and poseurs, it is refreshing to someone like me who has been turning into a cynic over the years, to see someone go out to do exactly what he has been advocating. Texas oil billionaire T Boone Pickens just landed a double punch in the solar plexus of skeptics both on the left and the right with a $ 2 billion investment in wind turbines: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24654895/ I have posted before about some of the arrant nonsense that has been spewed by vested interests and sundry cushion-warmers against this plan. I wish I had a Texas sized hat to raise to this gentleman for doing what he has insisted is the best plan for weaning the USA away from an addictive dependence on imported oil.

Granted this is a drop in the ocean of energy that the USA requires, it is a substantial beginning. The man has invested half of what he is worth into what he has been talking about. There is no shortage of those who pontificate about Alternative Energy and whine about oil, global warming etc. You can't praise a man who is doing something about it enough.