The Pickens Plan
Are you at all familiar with a gentleman named T. Boone Pickens? Mr. Pickens is a self-made billionaire that is very interested in ending America’s dependence on fossil fuels. The interesting thing of it is is that Pickens made his billions on oil. He is an extremely successful Oklahoma oil-man that apparently has seen enough of the black stuff.
Frustrated With Washington
Not long ago Pickens gave a simple demonstration in the White House for key members of the federal Energy Department. He showed that how in as little as 10 years the U.S. can reduce oil consumption by as much as 40%. The Energy Department officials were said to be thrilled with his findings, but much to the consternation of Pickens, have done nothing about it.
On Tuesday Pickens pretty much threw his hands in the air in frustration. He basically feels that either our elected leaders don’t understand the magnitude of our dependence on foreign oil, or they just don’t care. His frustration is understandable and you could almost see it coming. Now that gas has receded from record highs topping out at well above $4 per gallon, the issue of our addiction to oil has been once again pushed to the back burner.
Wind Energy
The heart of the Pickens Plan is to expand the harnessing of wind energy. Large wind farms have been used effectively to create electricity for a very long time now. Just not on a scale that cuts our reliance on fossil fuels in any significant way.
Pickens maintains that at least 20% of our electricity can be harnessed using turbines on wind farms. Currently most of our electricity is generated from natural gas – which we have in abundance. Pickens contends that we can convert vehicles to run on natural gas as opposed to the gas we currently refine from light sweet crude oil.
With the wind farms freeing up the natural gas we currently consume to create electricity we can liquify it and use it to fuel our vehicles, thus substantially eliminating or possibly reducing our current reliance on imported oil. This makes sense on a strategic level as well. A great many of the nations that we now pay billions to for oil continually show nothing but contempt for the United States, even as they become rich selling us their oil.
I for one am very interested in hearing more about not only Mr. Pickens plan, but of any plans that will reduce our need for oil, both foreign and domestic. We can only hope that while President-elect Obama is preparing to take office, he will follow through on his promises to aggresively explore alternative forms of energy such as wind and solar to power the United States into the 21st century and beyond.