Obama Meets With T. Boone Pickens, Avoids Swift Boat Question

RENO, Nev. — Democrat Barack Obama met Sunday with Texas oil baron and longtime conservative activist T. Boone Pickens to discuss strategies for developing alternative energy.

The presidential hopeful praised Pickens as a "legendary entrepreneur" and deflected a question about the billionaire's role in helping to fund a television ad campaign that undermined John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee.

"You know, he's got a longer track record than that," Obama told reporters when asked about Pickens' association with the ads by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "One of the things I think we have to unify the country around is having an intelligent energy policy. ... That's what we're going to be talking about."

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Pickens spent $3 million to help bankroll the Swift Boat organization, a group tied to supporters of President Bush that ran television ads questioning Kerry's record as a swift boat commander during the Vietnam War. The ads were believed to have damaged Kerry in several battleground states, contributing to his narrow loss to Bush.

Today, Pickens is bankrolling a much different kind of campaign. A critic of U.S. dependence on oil and a champion of wind power and other alternative energy forms, he has vowed to spend $58 million to promote his "Pickens Plan," which calls for the U.S. to generate 22 percent of its electricity through wind and other sources.

The high cost of energy has emerged as a central campaign issue between Obama and his Republican rival John McCain. Pickens met with McCain in Colorado last week to discuss his plan and requested a similar meeting with Obama. The two men talked privately for about 45 minutes, campaign officials said Sunday.

Comments

[dumbosrus]

This is quickly approaching comical proportions.

Just a couple years ago, the Democrats were complaining about Bush's energy policy being written by energy people with their own best interests in mind. So what are BOTH Obama and McCain doing? Putting that myth to rest by talking to Pickens.

This proves 2 things. One, the criticism against the Democrats was COMPLETELY warranted when it comes to energy policy - they had not a single solid idea. Two, to a degree Pickens doesn't NEED the government to make his own plan work - he has more than enough money, and the farmers and ranchers in the midwest will gladly allow their property to become homes for the large GE windmills Pickens has already bought.

[Shannon2008]

The Democrats had a policy for increasing funding for new energy before T. Boone came out with the commercials and before McCain FLIP FLOPPED (by his own admission) and decided to support offshore drilling.

Once again, John McCain has stepped in front of progress trying to be the OPPOSITION. However, now we have a leader in Barack Obama who says "I'll compromise with you. You can drill, but we're moving forward with a comprehensive plan to adopt new energy."

[gladys46]

Exactly!

[dumbosrus]

WRONG!!!

The Dems had a slogan - and that was it. Algore was touring the world (and spewing green house gases) and talking to anyone that would listen about the evils of fossil fuels.

Why wasn't he buying land and installing wind farms?

And who could forget Billary. The best the World's Dumbest Woman could come up with was a bunch of hot air about Bush's energy policy, even though she had none of her own.

As much as I like Pickens planning and initiative, it simply doesn't go far enough. The wind corridor from Texas to North Dakota is a legitimate source of power that wind mills can definitely harness without the need for any new tech development. This is already occurring. Harnessing the sun is another story, though. I would be afraid to ask how much money has been spent on solar power generation, given what we get out of it.

Hydrogen is looking more likely each day.

Finally, I don't really give a dmn about how opposing McCain OR Obama is to any plan. The simple fact of the matter is that neither of them are needed for people to set up smaller wind mills and begin harnessing the wind. They may be needed for other parts of Pickens plan, but not the common implementation of a wind mill. Americans have been using them for decades.........

[gladys46]

Oh, you think back in 2000 Cheney and big oil discussed alternative energy advancements!!?? You are joking right!?? Well, please note that if oil, oil, oil was not the energy policy ... why are we now in 2008 still stuck in stupid oil dependency!!??

[dumbosrus]

Yes, as a matter of fact they did. But the advancement they discussed were more left to the private sector, not the government. And look what happened.

While our dependency on foreign increased, so did the amount of energy generated by alternative sources. The private sector has outpaced the government in this area, and is going to continue to do so because wind power is now somewhat affordable. When you combine this with the fact that the feds and several state now offer good tax incentives to implement these alternative energy sources, it should be no secret as to why people are now installing their own power systems. And its more common than you can probably imagine.

All this said, gasoline still powers cars - not wind or sun. However, the private sector is already testing the next generation of cars - powered by hydrogen. One again, the government isn't leading the way on this effort (thank god).

Don't be too surprised to see Obama and McCain meeting the Governator and private sector personnel to discuss the future hydrogen infrastructure.

[heartsick]

Maybe Pickens realizes that his participation in the Swift Boating of John Kerry may have cost the Country much more than he bargained for! Maybe he wants to make amends by putting his money (this time) where it can help, rather than hurt, the Country that made him a "gazillionaire"!

[ESaD]

Oh yea, lets all just hope that Pickens won't be as big a maurading plunderer as he has been his whole life!
That's a totally foolproof domestic policy,

[BrettnCalgary]

More likely he is rational and shrewd and sees a problem that needs fixing, that will coincidentally make him gazillions more. I read recently that he has stated he won't endorse for this election, but still calls himself a republican.

[dumbosrus]

I've read the same thing about Pickens. He says he is voting for the candidate with the 'best energy policy'.

Historically, that means he's voting for the candidate that will have more than an open mind when it comes to his best interests. In this case, it may be more than that.

While the democrats (and liberals in general) have whined and cried about the environment for the better part of a decade, they just couldn't ever figure out that GREEN is the core of the green movement i.e.money.

The first time I saw Boone Pickens talking about the energy mess we are now in was last fall during the half time of a college football game in Stillwater, Oklahoma. By that time, HIS plan was already being put into motion.

Little did anyone know it would garner this kind of attention in so little time.

But when he started backing it up with money and wind farms, the momentum was undeniable.

I like the fact that Pickens is willing to put his money where his mouth is, something all these prominent liberals in this country just won't do. But deep down, Pickens is a hard core business man, the liberals are just politicians.

But because he is a hard core businessman, even more than a Republican, Obama and McCain will find out the details of his pan before the voters do. And that more than likely means $$$$$$$$$$. And possibly lots of it.

[OldKnute]

Yes and Arco has been developing Solar since the 1960s.

British Petroleum is in Solar,, Exxon is moving into Battery Technology and Obama and his new energy proposals stand to make the GREEN revolution a success,, BECAUSE,, his Economic and Energy proposals are based on HARD Profitability. NEW Companies and NEW Businesses and NEW Jobs.

You know,, Businessmen and Women doing BUSINESS.

Barak Obama is going to succeed where Jimmy Carter FAILED.

HOW?

Because Barak Obama knows Economics and the ways the LAWs have hindered American development by over manipulation of Markets and OIL Protectionism. McCain LAWS,, that McCain pushed through in the 80s on behalf of BIG OIL. AND,,,, Because Barak Obama LISTEN to Americans with Ideas,, that’s how.

There are NO Enemies here,, only AMERICAN FRIENDS,, you don’t know well,,, YET!

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[OldKnute]

Oh GUYS,, Boone Pickens is an OIL and Gas man YES!


Hello,, YES,, YES,, YES!!!

But T, Boone Pickens is putting his money where his mouth is. He is seeing the GREEN shift and potential wealth generation of Renewable of Wind and Solar.

As far as Natural Gas,, we have more that the Saudis have OIL!!!!

Oh and Natural Gas already has a GRID. Remember,, in every city and town,, already!!!

Boone Pickens is right about the short term,,, Diesel Trucks run very well on Natural Gas. Especially the lighter weight and MORE POWERFUL,,, Scavenging Air,, Detroit Diesels by GM. Gasoline cars can be converted to run on NatGas with a Multi-Fuel adapter,,, Instant FLEX FUEL,, for about $200. EVEN large SUVs..

NatGas power plants are 70% cleaner than Coal,, AND if GE turbines are used,, they can be built in 3 Months. NOT 6 YEARS.

And NatGas Turbine power plants do NOT require a River or huge cooling towers. Co-generation from waste heat can run smaller Steam generating power auxiliaries or let the steam be set to surrounding areas to heat factories, food production/processing, Cheese making.

AND powering Electric CARS and plug-in Hybrids.

CO2 exhaust is easy,, using Bio-Remediation and algae, can be turned into oils, plastic, medicines, cattle feeds or FISH FOOD.

Will T. Boone Pickens get rich,,, He's already RICH.

Obama needs to talk to more Americans like T Boone Pickens. Listen and learn even more.

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB.

[biglover]

And Natural Gas is very expensive.

[OldKnute]

Excuse me???

No it is not. After the demise of ENRON,, safeguards are in place to limit Price Gouging that was possible under ENRON.

Please keep in mind that NatGas suppliers like T. Boon Pickens did N-O-T,,,, NOT,, get any richer under the ENRON Price fixing.

Suppliers were screwed just as hard by ENRON as were the Consumers.

That is why ENRON was found GUILTY!

Sorry, but I disagree. What you say is baseless and FALSE.

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[NonNeoConCyberCommando]

T-Boone may be the enemy, but he has one thing going for him...he thinks big and talks like a Texan. He wants to build wind energy farms from Canada down to Texas and solar farms from Texas to California. He is on record severely criticizing Bush/Cheney as being derelict on energy matters and endangering national security. Obama knows how to talk to these disgruntled conservatives and get them over to our side.

[pmag88]

My biggest concern with the ‘Pickens Plan’ is that he keeps talking about private investors bankrolling it. If private investors own our energy grid, and especially if most of the investors are nebulous foreign entities, what's to protect the American consumer from the same type of price gouging and runaway energy rates we experienced at the hands of Enron and others? Also, it's much easier for foreign investors to sue the US government (you and me) for losses (real or trumped up) due compliance with legislation and regulation. What we're looking for here is energy independence in the form of clean, rewable, affordable energy that can drive the economy. What we aren't looking for is another cost shifting scam that ends up increasing how much we pay while taking away our right to have a say in our own destiny.

At the least I would demand legislation insuring that consumer and environmental protection is built in via some form of shared ownership that respects our sovereign rights.

[Shannon2008]

The concern that private entities can turn this into another Enron type scandal is valid. It's going to have to be regulated and there is going to have to be oversight.

[nanotubz]

To what sovereign rights are you alluding? Unfortunately we really don't have any relevant constitutional rights in this area.

[elmoor]

I agree completely! We don't want to create a Big Wind just as we're trying to recover from the damage of Big Oil.

PLUS...there are so many smaller enterprises that could make money from energy. Put some windmills on your open land to pay for all your energy needs and sell the rest back to your electric company. This could be the new 'home' business of the future. If Big Wind takes a monopoly right from the start, we're screwed.

[Dingoangst]

Well, we've survived for 7 years (maybe) an oilman who couldn't find oil in the auto parts aisle at Walmart, maybe a successful oilman will be successful in the wind business. It seems that successful people are successful at most things they do, failures (Bush) fail at everything they do. What have we got to lose if Obama helps out Pickens?

[Shannon2008]

Please note, McCain was fifth from the bottom of his class at the naval academy. He's been a member of Congress for the last 25 years. He pledge to change his ways after the Keating 5. He is still in bed with the lobbyists.

[Liberal2]

Your comment may be inaccurate as far as your underlying point is concerned. Class standings are not academics alone. Conduct is part of the equation. It's my understanding McCain's repeated failure to adhere to Annapolis' standards of conduct was why he was 5th from the bottom. Of course this means his personal conduct has **ALWAYS** only been minimally acceptable. This also means had McCain's grades been a little lower, his initial naval rank would have been that of "seaman recruit," instead of LTJG.

[AtlantaBill]

ESaD - What's your point ?

[ESaD]

If Obama is going to be run by the likes of "Swift Boat Pickens" then he will be no better than a 3rd Bush Administration, ...if were lucky it'll be Bush 3 Lite; But the way BO has been partying with the christianists & oilmen, and other denizens of the right, while doing things like discarding Gen Clark because he spoke the (gasp) truth about McCrashedPOW, ..I would be unshocked if ,lets say O'Reiley eventually endorsed him

[ebethgay]

This is going to be unpopular, but I'm going to say it anyway. The Swiftboaters were not the reason that John Kerry wasn't elected. John Kerry wasn't elected because HE was unable to prove that he was a better solution than W. If he had a more compelling platform, heck, a more compelling personality, he would have won. The Swiftboaters didn't help, but I have yet to meet anyone who has said "I was going to vote for Kerry, but there was that whole Swiftboat thing..." Swiftboat is a smokescreen for an election lost due to the Democratic party not being as organized and devout as the Republican party. Hopefully Senator Obama will rectify that.

Pickens may get richer off natural gas, but isn't it better to build his treasure chest than the Saudis, the Venezuelans, the Iranians, or the Russians. If natural gas is cleaner, and if we truly are "the Saudi Arabia of wind" as his website claims, then don't you think this is bridge where diverse political ideologies can agree and we can start reversing the destruction of our planet, put Americans in the heartland to work, and stop our dependence on foreign oil?

[Destin]

I find your comment offensive. Why Saddam's corpse would have been a better solution in the 2004 election than W.

[ebethgay]

Then you offend too easily. I voted for Michael Badnarik in 2004 because we didn't have any business being in Iraq in the first place.

[StillIRise]

I voted for Kerry, and support Senator Obama, and though I acknowledge that the swiftboating of Kerry was viciously deceptive, I agree that if the swiftboating alone lost Kerry the election, then Kerry never had the election. I also believe that there were other reasons as well that did not benefit Kerry, such as the low turnout and lack of enthusiasm among the Democratic base, Rove's orchestration of the "family values" issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, and the fear factor (tapes of Bin Laden, orange, red and green alerts, etc.) that so many Americans yielded to, and the inability of Kerry's campaign to define Kerry and to give people a reason to vote for him, other than that he wasn't Bush (although for me, that was reason enough).

I also see nothing wrong with Obama talking with Pickens. He is running to be the President of the United States, and he does not have the luxury that we have to harbor personal resentments that would prevent him from hearing new and different ideas that address the concerns of our nation, such as energy. If Pickens can offer ideas that will serve to remedy the energy crisis that we are challenged with, then Obama needs to hear them. Bush has been the kind of president who only wants to listen to people inside his bubble, people who were not "the enemy," and we see where that has gotten us.

[ESaD]

Great, : puke.

Should I vote for McBush or O'Bush ?

[Liberal2]

Yep, that's our choice.

[Shannon2008]

For those who think Lou Dobbs is an independent. Dobbs was registered to vote in Sussex County as a Republican, but changed to an independent in 2006, according to the county elections board.

[Shannon2008]

Sorry about the repost, it was a buried response. I also forgot to mention that Sussex County is in NJ.

[Liberal2]

Dobbs is the founding member of the Dobbs Party. That Dobbs' position on certain issues is also my position is similar to Stalin and FDR agreeing Hitler was a bad person.

Dobbs has something up his sleeve. If he doesn't suddenly run for president as an independent in Nov., he'll run in 2012. Neither the democrats nor the rethugs will be able to clean up the mess 12 years of rethug control of Congress and 8 years of Bush/Cheney have created, in the next 4 years.

[bascombe]

pickens is simply promoting an idea he expects his companies to profit from.

[Shannon2008]

That doesn't make him wrong on the issue. We can't drill ourselves out of this energy crisis. He's one of the first people to approach our current situation as a crisis.

[kay]

If he wants to rehab his conscience after buying The Nitwit the Presidency, why not stay in the background and fund the idea?

I'm sick of this idiot inserting himself in every election. He's the freaking kiss of death for this country. He sold us down the river 4 years ago and now wants to use the HUGE profits he made off the two oil men he installed to make himself a hero.

If it's a good idea maybe he should put his huge ego aside and step back.

[mhaven]

Pickens....another right wing welfare queen looking for a government handout.

[Shannon2008]

I replied to another blogger about John McCain's record on nuclear. It was buried so I'll post it again so he can catch it.


The 100 plants are all LWR. The is a program for advance light water reactors. In 1996, John McCain voted against it. He even attached an amendment to it that would prohibit the use of funds to carry out the
advanced light water reactor program. The amendment was tabled.

http://www.proaxis.com/~cop/sv960249.htm

In 2003, John McCain voted with 48 other senators for to eliminate billions of taxpayer dollars in loans and credit guarantees to the nuclear power industry promised in the Senate energy bill. The bill was ultimately reject 50-48.

http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/congactions/wydensununuamendmentvote.htm

In 2005, John McCain voted with 21 other senators to strike the title relating to incentives for innovative technologies. The senate ultimately approved the incentives by rejecting the measure to strike the title by a vote of 76-21 with 3 no votes.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2005-155

John McCain is the reason we have not advanced our nuclear technology and why we are still struggling with older technology. His record on nuclear is poor.

[ESaD]

His Nuclear Record prior to this campaign is NOT poor. Preventing the construction of these WMD power plants is essential. Don't argue - I don't care what the Fair & Balanced opinion is.
His current stand that cheer leads for the spread of these dreadful devices is an abomination.

[Shannon2008]

I think you're saying that you do not support nuclear power for generating electricity, or the construction of nuclear power plants.

You're right in that, until a few months ago when hardcore right wing conservative strategists wrote his energy policy for him, John McCain was against advancement of nuclear power for generating electricity.

His current position is idiotic. As I have stated before, it is unnecessary to build 100 new LWRs. Obama is for increasing efficiency and safety, and investing in advancing innovative technologies.

Based on his voting record, John McCain has completely flip flopped and cannot be trusted in regard to alternative forms of energy.

His main objective is to drill.

T. Boone is right. Drilling is stupid.

[captnEarl]

Common since says "Be ware of the 2 headed snake" keep one eye on him, trust but verifly!!