The Pickens Plan Marches on Washington
$18 billion. Sound like a lot of money? It sure does to me. The worst part is that's how much Americans shelled out last month to import 386 million barrels of oil. Think about the impact those dollars could have made right here right now as our country works its way out of this recession. In less than six months we could have wired every American home and every American business for broadband. Talk about a way to help our country set the pace in the Information Age. But, instead of building our own infrastructure and creating much needed new jobs, we lined the pockets of state-owned oil companies run by Hugo Chavez and others. Doesn't make much sense, does it?
Now I'm going to up the ante to $475 billion. That's how much the Department of Energy estimates we spent in 2008 feeding our addiction to foreign oil. We could have funded every single highway repair in all 50 states for the next seven years with that amount of money. Or we could have maintained and repaired every one of our nation's bridges for the next 25 years. Take your pick. Yet instead of investing in America, we wrote off almost half a trillion dollars so that other countries could invest in theirs.
I've got one last number I want to throw out, and it's the most important one of all: 4,558,010. That's how many people joined me last week in our Virtual March on Washington, D.C. Millions of Pickens Plan supporters teamed up with millions more from our 32 partner organizations in the private and public sectors. All of us had the same goal in mind: to get Congress to write, to debate, and to vote on the many components of an energy plan that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil once and for all.
Boy, did we get a lot done. That's what happens when almost five million people email, phone, fax, and visit their elected officials non-stop for three days. I did my part, too: meeting with sponsors, attending bill introductions, and keeping the news media focused on the importance of getting us off foreign oil.
I joined Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), Rep. John Larson (D-CT), and Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) as they announced the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2009. The idea behind their bipartisan NAT GAS Act is to develop domestically produced natural gas as a replacement fuel for the imported diesel oil that most heavy-duty vehicles and fleet trucks are using right now. It's good for the environment. It's good for the economy. And it's good for America.
I also offered my support to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who is promoting policies to create a National Renewable Electricity Standard. Right now 28 states have a Renewable Electricity Standard, which directs utilities to produce a set percentage of their electric power using alternative sources. California already requires utilities doing business there to produce 20 percent of their power from alternatives by 2010, and the rest of the country needs to follow their example. Sen. Bingaman wants us to get 20 percent from alternative sources by the end of 2020. Why? Because it's good for the environment. It's good for the economy. And it's good for America.
There's legislation to begin the process of building a 21st century transmission grid as well as to extend Production Tax Credits for wind and solar. In addition, proposed tax credits for energy efficiency in homes and buildings are already in the works. Senators Dorgan and Voinovich introduced a bill that would address many of the issues that have impeded development of transmission lines needed for renewable energy. That's the second bill to address developing a smart grid. The other of course is Majority Leader Harry Reid's. Both bills are good for the environment. They're good for the economy. And they're good for America.
I'm going to wrap this up with a personal observation. I've been going to Washington for a long time. Back in 1960s when I first went to Capitol Hill, there was always a good long wait before a Congressman or a Senator took the time to see me. But as the years went by and I enjoyed more success, that wait grew shorter and shorter. But that's nothing compared to what I saw last week when our Virtual March came to town. With three or four million people on my side, I'm a hell of a lot more important in Washington than I am as a rich guy from Texas. And you know what that means? America is finally going to get an energy plan.
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If Mr. Pickens plan works, then somebody will make a ton of money from natural gas, and I wonder who that might be?
Agreed, that's why we should start with rooftop solar to reduce natural gas used for peak air conditioning loads. see my profile. Otherwise "his" plan works fine.
Well I guess we will see what happens. Washington is a funny place. One day your good to go, and the next, you are yesterdays garbage.
What happened to the big Picken's push for wind power?
It is interesting that Mr. Pickens is hawking wind and natural gas and there are ads all over TV by a group against coal. I am wondering if Mr. Pickens is behind this as he was with the swift boat ads? I know that with power plants burning just natural gas the cost of natural gas will go through the roof. Pretty good if you are in the natural gas business.
It's laughable when you hear T. Boone Pickens rail on about energy independence now that the price of oil is hovering somewhere around $52 per barrel. What that means is the short attention span of Americans driving SUVs and pickups that get poor mileage has removed the sense of urgency for alternative energy development.
Notice how quickly Pickens's plan for wind energy lost its bluster once the price of oil came back down due to a souring economy? Also, has anyone noticed a disappearance of ethanol as an atlernative fuel? It has disappeared mainly because the factual evidence is overwhelming that ethanol produces only about 20 to 30 gallons per acre of corn. In addition to the thousands of gallons of water in the processing of corn to ethanol the fact is, ethanol is 25% less efficient than oil-refined gasoline plus it puts out more ozone. As numerous studies have pointed out, "ethanol produces more hydrocarbon byproducts than gasoline. And ozone is the product of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide cooking in the sun."
But, one dirty little secret that the congressmen/women of both parties don't want you to know is that we, the taxpayers, still pony up nearly $8 billion in yearly subsidies to the ethanol industry while we slap a .51¢ per gallon import tax on the cheaper sugar cane ethanol produced by Brazil.
I don't want your plan
We do not want to be connected to your grid that you build with Government subsidies
We want individual solar/wind power genration, using a device we pay for once and is easy/low cost to maintain
There is no reason for small households to be on a grid
There Will Be Wind
Hey, we at Planet Washington are GREEN and all, but what's this?
Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens has a web site and TV ads promoting --- windmills? Really?
I'm just glad John D Rockefeller isn't alive to see this.
_________________________________________________________
THERE WILL BE WIND (Parody of BALLAD OF JED CLAMPETT)
COME AND LISTEN TO A STORY
'BOUT A MAN NAMED BOONE
HE ONCE DRILLED FOR OIL
UNDER EVRY ROCK & DUNE
THEN ONE DAY
WHEN THE OIL WASN’T THERE
HE LOOKED TO THE SKY
AND HE DISCOVERED --- AIR
_____________________________
RENEWABLE, INVISIBLE, FREE.
WELL THE FIRST THING YA KNOW
BOONE’S SELLING US THE AIR
THE OIL MEN SCOFFED
SAID "THERE IS NO
THERE, THERE"
THEY SAID THAT BOONE’S JUST
SHOOTIN US THE BREEZE
THE NEXT THING YA KNOW – - -
HE’LL BE HUGGIN TREES
_________________________
SO NOW ITS TIME FOR BOONE
TO ASK YOU ALL
TO JOIN HIS PLAN
THE FOLKS WHO KNOW HIM WELL
WILL TELL YOU
HE IS STILL THE MAN
HE’LL SELL US ALL THE TURBINES,
POWER LINES THRU HILLS AND DALES
IF HE WERE PUSHING WATER
HE’D BE SELLING US THE PAILS.
IF HE WERE PUSHING WATER
HE’D BE SELLING US THE PAILS.
_______________________________________
“THE ANSWER MY FRIEND IS BLOWIN IN THE WIND,
THE ANSWER IS BLOWIN' IN THE WIND"
JOIN THE PLAN TODAY:
1-800-PICKENS 'IS GRININ!
PLANET WASHINGTON.COM
when news breaks, we fix it
Hey T-Boone, after we turn Texas blue and "nationalize" the ill-conceived toll system the next thing we are going to do is impose rational statewide drilling standards that won't let you and yours put natural gas wells 250 ft from someone's back door.
What t-Boone knows and won't tell you is that the drilling methods necessary to extract all this natural gas require that the cost of natural gas be high in order to be profitable.
Seen any swift boats lately?
Let me guess, Mr Pickens thinks the best solution is natural gas. What a coincidence, He put his entire fortune into natural gas in foreign country's. Not surprised.
Im reading the criticism of Pickens' plans, no solution is perfect. Natural gas is about 50% cleaner than oil, about 75% cleaner than coal, and the US has enough, if it were used for 100% of our domestic energy consuption, for about 100 years. BTW what do you folks think that "investing in energy independance" means? It means wind and solar too, but we arent going to be able to get enough of that for all electricity production, even with efficiencies 50% greater than our present scheme, for the whole country. Wind and solar Also do nothing to keep cars moving. we arent going to drop our transportation system and start sending out police cars, and school buses and ambulances powered by tandem bicycles ( or all battery) any time soon, so.........Right now we dont have the means to supply ourselves with NG , and im not just talking about production, im talking about delivery unfrastructure. I dont want to give trillion dollar handouts to rich people either, but i want those enrgy developement jobs in the US, I want to cut GH gasses by at least 50% and i want to stop importing oil. that means developing the new energy regime and its going to to money and political action. BTW new energy jobs need to be union jobs, plz call your cong. reps in support of EFCA.
What do YOU believe SHOULD BE part of the Definition of Energy Independence for the United States?
1. Buying Renewable Energy made here in the United States that is owned by foreign countries and foreign corporations
(The sad thing is foreign countries are investing a lot in our renewable energy production facilities and well I think Americans should own American made energy.)
2. Buying Renewable Energy Made here in the United States that is owned by Large Corporations or Big Oil companies (T Boone and His friends and the existing power companies that already have a strangle hold on us)
3.Buying Renewable Energy made here in the United States that is owned by “Banks”,“Wall Street” firms, and other financial institutions but paid for from the bailouts by the “American Tax Payers”(Until the recent stimulus package only banks and large corporations could absorb the Tax Credits that are created from renewable energy development. But now because of small changes we(everyday people not just big companies) can now also use these benefits for investing into renewable energy.)
4.Having Renewable Energy made here in the United States that is owned by YOU, your friends, your family and other like minded individuals like YOU (Hopefully we follow Europe's model of developing renewable energy for themselves and Americans own American Energy... now that is an IDEA! But we have to take action and invest in it ourselves and not just let T Boone and his friends do it)
People keep saying that wind and solar can't produce enough energy. Is there some kind of physical limit to these technologies that the developers and scientists haven't found yet?
The biggest limitation seems to be interest and will.
I vote for bio-fuel.
Pepsi came out of my nose as I laughed at Pickens' first paragraph. He's upset about $18 billion going to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia because it's not going to him and his homeys in TX and OK. Let's say we did keep all of our dollar expenses local: would that $18 billion go to build all that cool stuff Pickens described? Of course not. It would go to him and his buds who, thanks to our pro-wealth anti-labor tax laws, pay a lower percentage of taxes than teachers and store clerks. We would never see that money, and instead would have more green house gasses. And many American families who are barely making ends meet as it is would pay higher prices for the natural gas that they use to cook their food and keep their children warm.
Pickens claims that using natural gas as a fuel is "good for the environment." Paragraph five above.
Burning natural gas, which is mostly methane (CH4), releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as carbon is oxidized (burned), just as does the burning of any other carbon-containing item: wood, coal, petroleum, human bodies and other living or once-living things.
Natural gas is NOT environmentally clean. It adds CO2 to the atmosphere, just as burning coal and oil do. Granted, it adds less per unit than coal or oil or wood, but that is not the argument here. ANY addition of CO2 is harmful on today's planet.
Caveat: since methane by itself is more than 20X more effective at trapping heat than the carbon dioxide molecule, it can be argued that burning methane reduces the risk of global warming. But, again, ANY addition of CO2 only exacerbates global warming.
If Pickens (and I hope he reads this) would turn ALL of his profits from now on into truly alternative sources of energy (windmills, turbines in the Gulf Stream, tidal power, etc.) then I would consider him a true environmental hero. As his position stands today, I see him as just another profit-monger making money from a truly global human crisis.
I completely agree. And if we are agressively drilling for natural gas, how much is going to be released into the air incidently? Natural gas is carbon fuel, is a temporary fix in that it will soon run out just like oil, and yet requires a gigantic infrastructure retool. How stupid does Pickens think Americans are? Wait, don't answer that...
It will run out .. not soon.. the world is loaded with it. Even oil is a long ways from running out.. Brazil now has as much oil as the Saudi's... Note saying it was peak oil.. did help get the prices to 147 per BBL and bring this depression on along with many other factors..
The CO2 in the air is a good argument. However heavy duty trucking will not be electric/battery. NG is still much cleaner, lower in sulfur, nitrates than diesel...
And its much cleaner than buring coal (50% of power plants in U.S.) to charge your electric car.
I'm not for perfection, becuase you will come across as a nut and get nothing. ... if we can get 90 percent of the pollution down and reduce imports and the wealth drain, thats one heck of a start... that saving allows us to build a new electric net and solar power
the dessert and build huge wind farms.
Solar and wind cost 5-10 times more ... If your electric bill increased 5 times you would be complaining about a corporation ripping you off... and even more industry would leave the U.S. for places with cheaper energy.
Regards
the chemical formula for methane IS CH4 gasoline varies but its typically about C8H16
SO you can see that burning gasoline releases about 4-8 times more carbon, and about twice as much water vapor. gasoline also has chemical additives that contain sulfur and nitrogen. one company has actually produced TV ads, claiming the benefits to your engine of adding nitrogen, which of course, disolves in water, in the air ,to make an acid.
Another reason that natural gas isn't green: shale gas production -- upon which claims of US natural gas abundance are premised -- devastates whole regions where it occurs.
The idea that domestic gas is abundant is recent; US production had been declining until Halliburton pioneered the use of hydrofracturing to retrieve gas from deep shale. Millions of gallons of water per well, laced with known carcinogens, are injected into bedrock under great pressure, fracturing the rock and allowing gas "adsorbed" within to escape. Much of this wastewater returns to the surface, creating enormous problems with disposal (for example, Pittsburgh recently issued a bottled water advisory after drilling wastewater polluted the Monongahela River); much wastewater is never recovered, threatening aquifers with contamination. (A ProPublica story noted that state and local authorities have documented thousands of instances of water well contamination.)
Air quality suffers tremendously, due to the wholesale industrialization of production areas. A single well may have dozens of heavy trucks onsite during the drilling process; shale gas production areas may contain tens of thousands of wells, sometimes as close as one per 25 acres or less.
The Marcellus Shale, e.g., runs from West Virginia to New York, including most of Pennsylvania. Proponents of this production cite its potential to supply US natural gas needs for years; they don't mention how much of this landscape would have to be industrialized -- and worse -- in order to extract that much gas.
This aspect of the Pickens Plan is far too little
Pickens is self-serving. He would like to get America hooked on natural gas. Then, he will raise the prices.
I would like to have homes with their own source of electricity, like solar panels. But, it might not be practical. The alternative would-be taxpayers pay for the government to put-up & operate wind turbines and solar panels, then everybody would have "free" electricity from that. I hate that these monopolistic electric companies are extorting money from the people.
You betcha - and he will
Quasi-governmental utility companies like Pacific Gas & Electric (before the Enron deregulation) operating under government mandates seem to work best. "Free" is bad for conservation. What has held per capita energy consumption flat here in California while most of the rest of the nation increased over the last three decades is in large part due to a tiered payment system, like progressive taxation.
THERE is no way to get enough out of solar and wind, to supply all domestic electricity production, and solar and wind do nothing for transportation.
That's not what the scientists and developers have been saying.
Solar energy can power a house today -- why not the country?
Efficiencies continue to get better and technology cheaper as time goes by.
Pickens Plan = Pickens Profit
The Picken's plan require one modification:
Give priority to installing Rooftop solar wherever air conditioning is the peak load.
This frees up the gas and gas turbines currently used to generating the Air Conditioning load: the most expensive electricity we have.
Rooftop solar in the right places, already immediately cuts monthly cost, even including financing.
Otherwise the Picken's plan causes a self serving shortage of natural gas.
fears that clipboard-wielding bureaucrats will soon be strolling through your lettuce patch.
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