Texas Oilman: Clear Path For Wind Power
T. Boone Pickens Makes Request Of Congress To Boost Use Of Wind, Natural Gas
-
Play CBS Video Video Using Wind To Make Electricity The U.S. currently gets one percent of its electricity from wind. By 2030, it could be up to 20 percent. Billionaire T. Boone Pickens says we can do better that. Daniel Sieberg reports.
-
Video The Pickens Plan "Only On The Web": Katie Couric speaks with energy investor T. Boone Pickens Jr. about his plan to decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil through the development of alternative energy sources.
-
Video Can Wind Aid Energy Crisis? Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens wants to lower U.S. dependence on foreign oil with a plan that implements wind power. Katie Couric reports on Pickens' energy-swapping proposal.
-
T. Boone Pickens testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 22,2008, before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
-
Interactive Alternative Energy Learn about the types of renewable energy that are used in the U.S. and the regions of the country considered to be most suitable for each kind.
-
Interactive Eye On Energy Explore the production and consumption of energy in the U.S. Find out more about energy costs, and the use of fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewable energy sources.
Pickens has been on a $58 million publicity tour to promote his plan to erect wind turbines in the Midwest to generate electricity, replacing the 22 percent of U.S. power produced from natural gas. The freed up natural gas then could be used for transportation.
Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Pickens said the government should begin building transmission lines for wind-generated power or provide the right of way on private land and extend tax credits so the private sector can build the lines.
"If the government wanted to build a grid, I mean, do it," he said. "But if they don't want to do it, I think the money is there to do it private, and so it's kind of like either do it or get out of the way, but give us the corridors to put it in and it'll be done. You could do this on a very, very fast track if you wanted."
Pickens suggested that Congress follow the lead of former President Eisenhower, who declared an emergency to build the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s.
He warned that oil could cost $300 a barrel in 10 years as supplies drop, if the nation continues to "drift" on energy policy.
Pickens has leased hundreds of thousands of acres for a giant wind farm in West Texas, where he plans to erect 2,700 turbines and produce energy for urban areas such as Dallas and Fort Worth. He has run into some opposition from West Texas landowners who are unhappy with his efforts to obtain rights of way to build the wind farm and a pipeline for a separate water project.
Specifically, Pickens asked Congress to extend a 2005 law intended to speed up the creation of energy corridors, and to give him control over any transmission lines he builds for wind-generated power. All electric transmission lines are now regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Pickens also called for a 10-year extension of a tax credit for energy producers. He estimated it would cost taxpayers $15 billion a year in production tax credits for 200,000 megawatts of wind power.
"When you look at $700 billion dollars going out of country every year for purchase of oil, $15 billion is somewhat insignificant," he said.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., called Pickens' plan bold and said he hoped Pickens' testimony would "infect people in a position in Washington to do something about it."
But the oilman's plan raised questions with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who asked if it would hurt the chemical industry, which relies on natural gas as raw material. He said the industry probably won't like seeing natural gas costs increase.
Pickens estimated it would cost about $500 billion to increase wind energy production from the 4,000 megawatts to be generated at his Texas wind farm to 200,000 megawatts, the amount needed to power 20 percent of U.S. energy needs. Transmission lines and the tax credit would add another $15 billion.
At that level, he said, "You're approaching about one year's supply of oil that you're buying. But don't get the idea that replaces that oil, it doesn't. It will only replace 38 percent."
In addition to the hearing, Pickens also met privately Tuesday with Democratic and Republican members of Congress as well as Texas senators.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More From SciTech
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 68 Comments--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by talkingham...........
not to mention the Oil storage tanks...
thery put those things inside the city limits..
As an Electrical Engineer I can tell that you are one stupid MF. Why does everything have to be a home run? Solar cells, Nuclear, gas, coal wind, water, tidal, geo-thermal. They all have a place in adding supplemental (not mental like you) power to the grid. It''s people like you who make me wonder about the value of your college education. I am not a liberal but go back to your hate meeting!!
Is his current program deceitful too? If we asked him if he''s lying, how would he be expected to answer?
ZERO credibility as far as I''m concerned.
------
Did you just figure out that the government doesn''t spend money to benefit you and me?
Our government has moved well beyond supplying basic public services. Our government is a self sustaining entity that feeds on you and me for that self substinance.
[Posted by fedupwithit1 at 11:50 AM : Jul 23, 2008]
this would be appropriate since it''s the free market that contributed to many of the problems in the first place.
A solar panel is sand and dirt, to which energy has been added. It''s expensive because its energy is costed on the ''free'' market, ie its oil energy. Hello? What''s a solar panel used for? There''s no reason that, with proper industrial engineering, the cost of a solar panel could be brought down to the cost of just the sand and dirt, making them dirt-cheap. But that industrial engineering will never be done unless the government steps in to do it. They spent $1 trillion in nuclear fission energy research (not bomb-related), but haven''t spent a dime on solar. YOu get what you pay for.
Doofs don''t buy Big Mac''s, Americans do, and have a major obesity problem. The ''free'' market helps. Without proper (gasp) regulation, everything tends toward the ''lowest common denominator'' (greed). Sorry. Its human nature.
The free market thinks the ocean/atmosphere system is a dumping ground.
The free market thinks a Big Mac and fries is FOOD, thinks that ''57 channels and nothin''s on'' is ENTERTAINMENT, and thinks that a Hummer is TRANSPORTATION.
his head is on the chopping block and he is useing the americans tax payers to bail him out.
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, trying to persuade Congress to approve his rescue plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said U.S. financial market stability is at stake and international investors are awaiting the outcome.
``This is about not only our housing markets, but it''''''''s about our capital markets more broadly,'''''''''''''''' Paulson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. ``This goes well beyond the two institutions -- Fannie and Freddie -- it has to do with investors in the United States and investors all over the world.''''''''''''''''
yep, we the people get f by whitehouse and congress again..thanks to americans not telling congress to get f on this idear. everyone should hold town by town rally,city by city rally,state by state rallys or completely stop working stop buying,stop them in their tracks.
come on america what will it take for you to stand up for your kids and grandkids futures..
for-america@hotmail.com
americans need to tell congress that the same investors that are putting americans on the streets, need to be told that it goes both ways, and americans are not going to bailout the same investors that started this whole thing in the first place
That should say ''COULDN''T make the kind of $$$''
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 68 Comments