Boone Pickens Caught in Several More Lies on Frontline
Last night, PBS debuted Heat, their widely anticipated documentary on the politics of Climate Change. I haven't been able to watch it yet myself, but I skimmed the transcript of the portion with T. Boone Pickens and a few things caught my eye. It is starting to look like Pickens has a bad habit of telling a few whoppers in every public appearance.
Lie #1: Democratic candidates don't know how reducing CO2 emissions by 60-80% is possible.
Frontline: "So the Democratic candidates are talking about between 60 and 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions. Do you have any idea how that's possible?"
Boone Pickens: "No. I don't think they do either. Somebody put it up in front of them, and they read it off."
Here is an outline of Obama's Cap and Trade Plan (pdf), which would reduce CO2 emissions to by 80%, from 1990 levels, by 2050.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden support implementation of an economy?wide cap?and?trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. This market mechanism has worked before and will give all American consumers and businesses the incentives to use their ingenuity to develop economically effective solutions to climate change.
The Obama-Biden cap and trade policy will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all industries pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these valuable emission rights away to companies on the basis of their past pollution. A small portion of the receipts generated by auctioning allowances ($15 billion per year) will be used to support the development of clean energy, invest in energy efficiency improvements, and help develop the next generation of biofuels and clean energy vehicles - measures that will help the economy and help meet the emissions reduction targets. It will also be used to provide new funding to state and federal land and wildlife managers to restore habitat, create wildlife migration corridors, and assist fish and wildlife to adapt to the effects of a warming climate. All remaining receipts will be used for rebates and other transition relief to ensure that families and communities are not adversely impacted by the transition to a new energy, low carbon economy.
Additionally, we recently learned that the 15 European Union countries who originally signed onto Kyoto are on track to meet their 20% reduction from 1990 levels by 2010.
Lie #2: Every candidate since the early 1970s has increased U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Boone Pickens: "Every candidate for president since I can remember -- back to the early '70s -- said, "Elect me, and we'll be energy-independent." Not one candidate from that time to this time has ever reduced the dependency on foreign oil. They've increased the dependency. They've all failed because none of them understood what they said."
Between 1977 and 1983, annual foreign oil imports into the United States were essentially cut in half, from about 2.4 billion barrels, to about 1.2 billion barrels. This success was due largely to President Carter's aggressive and forward-thinking policies. Implementing CAFE standards, in particular, likely had the largest impact.
The best thing we could have done to prevent our current reliance on foreign oil would have been to continue ratcheting CAFE standards up indefinitely. Here is what Carter's sound energy policy looked like in terms of foreign oil imports:
Lie # 3: 97% of the natural gas used in the United States is domestic.
Natural gas is 97 percent domestic fuel, North America.
Here are the facts.
In 2006 (best data available), 81% of the natural gas used in the U.S. was produced domestically. Of the remaining 19% (4.2 trillion cubic feet), 86% (3.6 trillion cubic feet) comes from Canada. 97% of the natural gas used in the United States is produced in North America, but only 81% is produced domestically.
Aside from just the three lies above (I'm sure there are more), Pickens also makes it clear that climate change is on the back burner for him. Priority number one, as always, is turning a profit.
It's probably somebody like me who spent too much money looking for oil and gas -- found a lot of it, but it got very, very tough to find in the last 20 years of my career. And I wanted to look for something else. Was it because I wanted to be clean and all? Not really. That isn't the first look I had at it. As time passed, that came into it.
So you wanted to make money?Exactly. That's what most businessmen are going to want to do, is make money. You have to focus on I'm going out to make money is why I'm in this business, not to do good. Now, if you're lucky enough that the things that you're doing do good, then there's a nice, warm feeling about that.
I didn't go through the transcript in detail. How many lies did I miss?
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I think that Mr. Pickens' current efforts are doing much more good than harm. Even he has said that converting cars to natural gas is only a temporary solution, until we can get cars completely off of petroleum based fuels. His efforts to build wind mill systems and electrical infrastructure in the heartland are nothing if not commendable.
I think that it is probably impractical to convert a majority of our cars over to natural gas. The time, effort, and money involved in such a project could be better spent. Where the infrastructure for CNG already exists or can be readily built, it may indeed be practical to temporarily convert a sizeable fraction of cars to that fuel. It looks to me like we are already close enough to practical PHEVs and EVs that we should direct most of our efforts in that direction. If we are going to use PHEVs, it might be practical to have some of the internal combustion engines running on natural gas.
Another factor against the argument for the use of natural gas in our vehicle fleets is that it does not do enough to reduce our CO2 emissions. It appears that the rate at which our atmosphere is warming is rapidly increasing, and the most important immediate thing that we can do to halt that trend is to cut way back on the amount of green-house gases that we allow to be dumped into the atmosphere. Natural gas is a carbon based fuel.
Let's apply the laugh test to the Pickens plan!
The US produces about 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year. One cubic foot of natural gas gas an energy content of approx. 1.08MJ. So the total energy content of the annual NG production in the US is on the order of 21 trillion MJ or 21 billion GJ. Now, a single barrel of oil has an energy content of 6.1GJ. So expressed in barrels of oil, we are producing roughly 3.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent a year. That's roughly 9.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day.
We are importing roughly 10 million barrels of oil a day. That means, if Mr. Pickens wants to make us energy independent, we would have to more than double our natural gas production!
There seem to be 220 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves. That's ten years worth of natural gas. So if we actually double production, it would be only five year's worth of NG... not too good.
Now, proven reserves are not what's there but what has been explored. So how much is really there? Estimates range in the 600-800 trillion cubic feet range (albeit at a much higher technological production level and cost). So that's 20 years tops under the Pickens plan (depletion of US oil not even included!).
Chances are that we would be out of natural gas before we would have converted even half the US fleet.
:-)
Completely Specious Arguments. Brought to you by a total intellectual fraud.
Really? Can you explain exactly what's wrong with his math?
Thanks for the bracing dash of reality Kill. Powering carworld for maybe 10 years (remember we use natural gas for heating too) with natural gas, wow, PICKENS HAS A PLAN! Jesus, I've seen HUNDREDS of PLANS! since I began following this issue back in junior high school. NOTHING is more common in the save-the world field than a PLAN! and some joker with some PR money behind him. This is nothing more than another PLAN! strangled in the cradle by the physics textbook again.
"Exactly. That's what most businessmen are going to want to do, is make money. You have to focus on I'm going out to make money is why I'm in this business, not to do good. Now, if you're lucky enough that the things that you're doing do good, then there's a nice, warm feeling about that."
Yes, because as anyone who has done good in this world can tell you, their ability to do good works was purely based on luck.
It seems to me America is finally tired of the conservative's typical "Can't Do" mentality. American society has generally tended to be positive, optimistic, and forward looking. So my surprise isn't that conservatives telling America for over thirty years that we are too stupid to accomplish things or do good in the world is finally being rejected by the populace at large... my surprise is that it's taken this long.
America's always been a liberal nation- we were built on liberal values, and continued to move farther and farther toward individual freedom and social justice. Now that the conservatives have thoroughly disgraced themselves, it's time to bring America back into the forward-looking viewpoint the entire world had come to know and respect.
Pickens has offered solutions to the American energy dilemma. This is better than nothing which is what we had before Pickens offered his plan to the USA. Car manufacturers have been leading us to believe that electric vehicles were a possibility for years. I have yet to see an electric vehicle on a US car manufacturers lot. I have herd rumors of the "Volt" but so far, I have not seen one on the road. I have seen "natural gas" powered buses, and I know cars can be produced with this technology. If we want to believe that fossil fuels are the answer, then we would be lying to ourselves.
Fossil fuels are NOT the answer and T Bone Pickens is trying to sell natural gas to you... which is a fossil fuel.
Bummer.
:-)
I agree with most of the comments already posted. Mr. Pickens has a plan. We should not allow a partisan perspective from the right or the left cloud that issue. Unless the candidates embrace the Pickens plan, there rhetoric rings hollow. I have met people on both ends of the political spectrum that wholeheartedly support the Picken's plan. We need to demand that our politicians embrace the plan as well or we will find ourselves with no solution at all.
Nobody who is not a fool supports the Pickens plan. It's just another scheme to make Pickens richer.
I have heard many say this, and to be honest. It is sorta silly to make that comment. By the time the Pickens Plan gets in high gear, most likely Mr. Pickens will be travelin with a vehicle powered by God. He has got plenty, in fact he gives millions away, so the need to make millions is not the issue, that is just being narrowed minded. If you are looking at billionares that want more, look at Warren Buffett. He said he was going to give his wealth away. Then why is he spending billions for bankrupt companies, that most likely will be worth billions more in 4-5 years? His wealth increased 10 billion last year.
The point is this, if spending millions to educate Americans on the need to look for other scources of energy isn't a great idea, is sure is a lot more then other billionares are doing. I would rather spend my money right here in the good old USA. Remember those days Walmart talked about made in the USA?
We have seen the price of crude oil per barrel go down in recent days as the demand around the world has decreased. I am sure the OPEC countries will try to cut production more to keep the price up. What we need is a President that will stand up to these OPEC nations, and tell them the United States will move away from the use of foreign oil, that new technology will prevail, and cutting production, will hasten the need for cars that run on other fuels and or electric.
The Pickens Plan has made all American's aware of the cost of foreign oil to our pocketbooks. I expect the fall of crude oil is temporary. We all need to get on the bandwagon and write our Senators and Representatives the need to support the Pickens Plan, and get away from foreign oil.
I am glad to see comments in favor of Mr. Pickens. The fact is that he is the only one out there with a plan. Auctioning off credits does not count! Calling Mr. Pickens a liar for opinions he holds is unfair. Mr. Pickens is looking for a solution to end our dependency on foreign oil. He is not endorsing any candidate for President and his plan is being supported by both Democrats and Republicans. I think the author missed an opportunity to study the plan in more detail and understand what Mr. Pickens is trying to accomplish. If Mr. Pickens makes some money as a result--more power to him!
Mr T. will make some money, all right. But it won't solve America's waste problem. And it does not have to. That is not what he cares about to begin with. He only cares about the money.
:-)
T. Boone has truly helped inform millions of Americans of a sound plan to help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He has spent his own money to help not just publicize his plan, but also explain it!
Wow... so many "supporters" here. Or is it just one paid shill? Maybe the Huffpo web master should check the logs for the IP address of the "supporters".
Just an idea... I know I would.
Reply is awaiting approval. Here it is if you want to read it before
it goes on the site:
It is a shame that you didn't finish reading that interview before you
rushed to judgment. If you had you might have seen that Mr. Pickens;
a) Agrees that Climate Change is something that needs to be addressed.
b) Agrees that there is a very good chance that human beings have
contributed to it.
c) Believes that, because we created our current problems, we can fix them.
d) Believes in adopting all forms of clean energy as quickly as we can.
e) Believes that we need some type of Carbon Legislation to help to
force change.
f) Supports natural gas as a transportation fuel because it is (90%)
cleaner than fossil fuels and
emits (25%) less CO2. And most of the Natural Gas we use is produced
or capable of being
produced domestically.
g) Believes that natural gas is cost effective because mush of the
network to distribute it is already in
place.
If you would have read the article you would have had a totally
different picture of Mr. Pickens and his beliefs and objectives. I
would encourage anyone who reads this story to go and read the
interview. This story is a spin worthy of Fox News and it is
unfortunate because the issues we face today are more important than
the Writer's obvious personal dislike for Mr. pickens.
Looking back 25 years is not a viable argument. The point is that Pickens has a plan. It may not be a perfect plan but it is a plan. Our Federal government does not have a plan. Our state governments do not have plans. Obama and McCain do not have plans. PBS does not have a plan and I do not believe the writer of this article has a plan.
Auctioning off credits is not a solution. It is surrender.
If Boone thinks that Canada is a "domestic" producer it is a small error compared to the rubbish that Al Gore has printed. We still seem to get along and they are not a terrorist state unless they were added to the "Axis of Evil" without my knowledge.
But your arguments are minor. T. Boone Pickens has done more to make Americans aware of the cost of the energy crisis than any other person alive. If he turns a profit doing it then good for him. I do not care how much money he makes. Maybe you should read ALL of his plan and listen to how willing he is to invest in other technologies which will make our country a better place.
By the way: formulate a better plan and market it with your own money. Then we might be willing to listen to what you have to say.
And #4. The man is spending real money here.
WOW!!! How could anybody take anything that Boone Pickens says as lies? Mr. Pickens is the only person in the country with a viable energy plan. He is also doing this in a totally non-partisan way. Nobody else is taking this non-partisan stand.
In a recent Town Hall Meeting in Chicago, Mr. Pickens was introduced by Democrat Congressman Rahm Emanuel from Illinois. In his presentation, Mr. Pickens even told everyone that he agrees with Al Gore about global warming. His energy ideas have to do with ALL sources of alternative energy, and he is concentrating on those that we can begin immediately. He also says that if anyone comes up with a better plan, he would join it. I don't think we can afford to wait around. He's been working on getting us off foreign oil for more than 20 years. His goal is to get us energized, and to get off our asses and actually do something, instead of cowering behind a keyboard and lashing out with things that are factually incorrect.
I will only offer one response to the lies offered in this article. T. Boone Pickens is not putting global warming on the back burner. As a geologist, he tells everyone that he agrees with Al Gore about the seriousness of the problem. That's why his plan is encouraging us to use wind for our electrical needs, and to use natural gas as a bridge for transportation.
#5... or maybe it's just the same person with multiple accounts? All these responses sound so similar. Is there a script or something?
Maybe there just happen to be a few people who have actually read ALL of the Pickens Plan and realize that for all it omissions it is still a PLAN. I have not heard anyone else venture even this far.
You know, I don't have a problem with T. Boone turning a profit on green energy, and/or reducing our dependence on oil (though he only wants FOREIGN oil!!!) but the man has come up with a "solution" which will not work as well as he claims, and is busy convincing people that he's the new Al Gore on Global Warming!!!
PEOPLE! WAKE UP!!! T. Boone Pickens is ONLY trying to get in relatively early on the "green" energy bandwagon that he sees coming, so that he can take the biggest piece of the pie!!! (darn, I can't believe I used that line.....) Let's look at ALL the alternatives, not just using wind power to free up natural gas!!
I also support T. Boone Pickens' effort. He may have been off on Carter policy and I am glad to hear about it. Still, Pickens is making a major contribution to public awareness. For this I am grateful. Also, no sin in making money.
Mr. T... is that you? It sounds like you are online to support your own "plan". Nah... it's just a paid shill.
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