T. Boone and Me
Sweetwater, Texas was once known for hosting the world's largest rattlesnake "roundup" -- 12,000 reptiles every year. Now it calls itself "the world's wind capital" and, by the end of the year, turbines there will be pumping out 3,000 megawatts of wind to provide green power to America's electricity customers. Sweetwater is the County seat of Nolan County, which by itself would rank as the world's fourth-largest nation for wind power -- boasting more wind than the entire state of California. The rattler-friendly pastures and cotton fields around Sweetwater are dotted with General Electric, Siemens, and Toshiba turbines -- big ones, some generating 2.3 megawatts a pop.
T. Boone Pickens was first known as an oil and gas man and then as a corporate raider, but these days he is jousting to topple Sweetwater from its title. Flying with me to visit his wind operations in Sweetwater, he makes it clear that his next wind project is big, Texas-style -- 4,000 megawatts up in the Panhandle north of here. Pickens just doesn't believe that America's energy future is in oil any more. He dismisses the current calls for opening up the coast to drilling, saying that the government's official estimates of oil and gas reserves are wildly inflated -- "the geology just isn't there."
Pickens is infuriated by our continued and increasing addiction to imported oil, which he says now costs us $700 billion a year, and will soon climb to an even trillion. (He is watching the market as we fly, and as oil hits $143 a barrel, the Dow plummets. Boone notes "well, my securities are going to go down, but my commodities book will make up for most of today's loss." Pickens is long on oil, meaning he is betting that the price keeps going up.)
To put it plainly, T. Boone Pickens is out to save America.
But how can wind power, which generates electricity, help us out of our imported oil dilemma? Long-term, it will be through plug-in hybrid cars. But Pickens doesn't think we can afford to wait for the long term, so he's offering an audacious alternative vision -- generate enough wind so that America no longer needs to use natural gas to generate electricity, and then use that gas instead to power up to one-third of our vehicle fleet with compressed natural gas (CNG).
The conversion is clearly feasible. CNG cars are already normal in countries like Argentina, where they cost no more than conventional models. The barriers in the U.S. have been the resistance of the major oil companies and that we would need to install CNG pumps at service stations. But many fleets already burn the fuel, which is much cleaner, and emits about one-third less carbon than gasoline. And CNG now has another advantage: It costs about half as much as gasoline does. If we were to convert any significant part of the U.S. fleet, the resulting decline in world oil demand would actually reduce oil prices, potentially sharply. It's probably the only short-term (2-3 year) strategy that might.
How to recruit the necessary public support? This would take, it seems to me, a government mandate to get the distribution network in place. After all, the oil industry has hardly rushed to install E85 pumps for ethanol. We can expect that it will fight any effort to break its monopoly. And the auto industry would need to be more than a passive partner if we're going to get enough CNG vehicles rolling off the assembly lines to make a difference. Will it embrace this play? Lastly, the millions of Americans who own gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs would need to start buying affordable CNG-conversion kits for their vehicles to lower their driving costs. Pickens says he has a game plan, and will announce it next week.
Who knows? I certainly never expected to be inspecting wind operations with Pickens or to be hearing his scorn for the current political notion that we can somehow drill our way out of the oil-price crisis. He's certainly likely to draw an audience that a green wind-power advocate from the Sierra Club could never command. I think we should all stay tuned.
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There are many things I don't like about T Boone Pickens, including his funding of the Swiftboat Liars but he has been consistent in trying to raise the peak oil alarm and he should be listened to closely on energy matters. The one concern I had about converting cars to CNG was will the increased demand on natural gas result in shortages but Pickens probably has run the numbers and they will be OK. Of course, I would also like to see the coal plants scrapped also.
Companies have been drilling for years in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas. Technicians come in a'nd analyze the samples and routinely cap the wells even though there may be oil or NG
there. They will come back later and extract the oil/gas as prices rise and demand increases.
If what you mean is wells are drilled, evaluated and then either completed or plugged and abandoned based on the technical analysis and the economics of the project you are correct. if you are implying anything other than that you are incorrect.
The technicians would be engineers, geologists and geophysicists. Their job is to mazimize the effeiciency of the production from a particular field without damaging the reservoir.
Wells that are either uneconomic or unwise to complete becasue of their position in the reservoir are plugged and abandoned. While product prices can make previously discovered reserves economic to produce, companies do not leave proven reserves behind wating on price and demand increases.
I have no illusions that T. Boone Pickens isn't looking to do anything but make a ton of money for himself, but all that says to me is that when he says the US is foolish thinking that it can drill its way out of the problem in the long run and that the real solution is wind I believe it because the guy knows oil and is putting his money where his mouth is!
Where I think that Pickens may be off (and I think he realizes it too) is that a drop in US consumption will cause world prices to sink. The US is already driving about 1.8 percent less than last year and prices are continuing to skyrocket. The reason is that the prices are driven by overseas supply stability concerns and overseas demand growth concerns. So the US consumer is not in conttrol of the Supply/Demand curve.
As for the contention that there is no CNG infrastruc
A drop in US consumption wont cause prices to sink because everybody else wants oil. Indeed the oil producing countries are actually exporting LESS of their oil because they are using more of it.
So, one wealthy American is installing 1000s of MWs of wind turbines, but our government does nothing?
BTW, I was reading an advertisement from Chevron about how much money they have, and are going to, invest in renewables. It is interesting to see that one man, Pickens, is outspending Chevron in this field.
Agree or disagree with him, he acts on his beliefs.
"If we were to convert any significant part of the U.S. fleet, the resulting decline in world oil demand would actually reduce oil prices, potentially sharply. It's probably the only short-term (2-3 year) strategy that might."
My bet would be that a Pres. Obama having a private meeting with Ahamadinejad and shaking hands for the cameras afterward would relieve tensions in the middle east so much that it would shave fifty dollars off of the cost of a barrel of oil overnight.
Given the major investment so many millions of our people have made to include natural gas as an energy source, I'd much rather see us follow a strategy that brings down the prices of both gas and oil, and see us earmark out gas resources for residetial use.
But an emphatic yes to wind power, and even a crash program.
gah! t. boone pickens is out to save t. boone pickens and nobody else. man, how can you say stuff like this with a straight face? he is Big Energy, period. he doesn't care if it's atmosphere-killing oil or wilderness-killing wind. he understands that Big Energy is one of the few industries where you can socialize virtually ALL the costs of doing business (onto the environment and onto taxpayers and ratepayers) and privatize all the profits.
any mercenary sees what a good deal that is, and he is just riding on the coattails of greenwashers who are willing to sacrifice hundreds of millions of acres of vital, functioning ecosystems to further entrench monopolies for folks like him, while homes and businesses languish without support for on-site systems.
the Big Environmental community is being PLAYED. how many active coal plants are retired as a direct result of the hundreds of thousands of acres of wind farms in Texas so far? NONE. how's that working out? how many home wind systems and home solar systems has this guy financed, since he's so interested in saving america? NONE. how's him exploiting us and our public lands saving us again?
please, rethink this position.
Sadly, you are correct.
Your statements are an excellent example of the perfect being the enemy of the good.
and yours, my friend, is an excellent example of someone who has believed the greenwashing of Big Energy for these nightmarish projects. they aren't "good." they are "very nearly as bad as coal" and "about as bad as natural gas."
sorry, we can do better. there is more to the planet that one measure of CO2 emissions. intact wilderness ecosystems need to be protected, not exploited for profit. they are not renewable - once they are gone, they are gone for good.
this is all about money. i study energy policy every day and believe me, these guys have gamed the system so much against energy independence, it is mind-boggling. He is no different than he was as an oil baron. you should have heard the Big Solar guys at the BLM hearings complaining about Environmental Impact Reports and demanding access to National Parks, National Forests, ACECs, DWMA's nature preserves and other fragile habitats, just to get themselves more, more, more. it was revolting.
there is no reason for 19th century remote combustion and lengthy transmission in a renewable energy era. point-of-use renewables are the only answer, and until we've tried at least as hard as germany to get them installed, we have no right to kill off more of our ecosystems so creeps like Pickens can bleed us dry bottling and selling us our own wind gathered on our own land...
I am no particular fan of T. Boone but i believe he is a capitalist in a capitalistic society. Our standard of living is a result of our capitalist system, no apoligies or excuses are necessary.
"To put it plainly, T. Boone Pickens is out to save America. "???????
You're joking right?? This is the same T. Boone Pickens who funded ($3 MILLION) the kooks Swiftvets and POWs for Truth that lied about war vet and war hero John Kerry??? Then offered $1 Million for anyone who could 'disprove' the lies. Then reneged by refusing to pay the people who proved he and his swiftboaters were lying.
Whatever!
Just another old, white man trying to control America and Americans.
Oh, yeah, and it's still known for its Rattlesnake Roundup. (a disgusting spectacle.
So many rattlesnakes, so little time.
I live near Sweetwater, Texas . . . all those turbines, all that ugliness and no electricity provided to the folks nearby.
CNG is the only real short term strategy we can employ. In fact, it is possible to convert many autos that now burn gasoline to CNG. The only problem is the tank holding the CNG needs to be protected more so than a gasoline tank Also, . don't know about taking it through tunnels; note the signs forbidding it. But all that said, we could convert to CNG autos relatively quick, even compared to opening new oil fields and there are numerous small pockets (and a very large one in Alaska) throughout the US and Canada.
We are in good shape natural gas wise. We will be in even better shape wihen the BP/Conoco Alaska Gas Pipeline is completed. There is an area where the govt could step in and do some good for the lower 48- i.e. streamline the building of the pipleine.
CNG vehicles would go a long way to help reduce our dependence on oil.
One of the biggest NG fields in the US right now is in East Texas and Ft. Worth. The Ft.Worth field is estimated at 150 to 200 trillion cu.ft. and the East Texas field is estimated at 200 to 300 trillion cu.ft. How many years can we run off that much NG? I didn't know that there was a convertion kit for cars but if there is and someplace to fill the tanks I will convert. I live in E.Texas and NG drilling is wide open here. There is about 50 new well within a mile radius of my house. So lets run off of NG and get off of foreign oil.
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