All Posts Tagged With: "oilman"
T. Boone Pickens has decided not to persue wind in Texas
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Jul 07 2009 | 0 Comments
Last year, especially during heavy political advertising, billionaire T. Boone Pickens advertised on every major network about his plan to eliminate or reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. His plan included installing nearly 700 wind turbines in the Texas panhandle over a space of land that was just over 200,000 acres.
Today the energy tycoon has decided not to go forth with the plan and his $2 billion (plus nearly $60 million in advertising) investment has turned sour.
“When I start receiving those turbines, I’ve got to … like I said, my garage won’t hold them,” Pickens said. “They’ve got to go someplace.”
The issues faced with the building of the wind farm is due to not being able to get the power created by the wind to customers. Pickens said that he hoped to construct a system of his own, but “technical problems” arose from the project.
The “Pickens Plan” was announced a year ago and while he has spent over $60 million on advertising and promotional events for the plan, it appears as though he is one step from giving up the project altogether. He says that some of the turbines will go in the Texas panhandle, but what about the rest of the turbines? I suppose he is just going to continue to look for a buyer for the massive machines?
He wanted to finish the four step project in 2014 and be producing 4,000 megawatts of energy through the system. If it were to go as to plan, that would be enough to power more than a million houses. Over the course of the plan, however, it was expected to cost $12 billion.
When he introduced his plan, because it focused on something that is new and trendy in my opinion, I felt that he was really just jumping on the bandwagon and trying to make a lot of money off it; after all, this man is a “legendary oilman.”
So, even though he says that he wants the turbines to go into a farm somewhere in California and other places around the country, it looks as though the picture at the top of the post is going to be less and less likely to be seen around the Texas panhandle as long as it’s sponsored by Pickens.
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Tags: oilman, political advertising, massive machines
The Texas oil man with the plan
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Jul 24 2008 | 0 CommentsWell everyone is talking about T. Boone Pickens, the Texas Oilman with a plan… His plan is to cut our dependency on foreign oil with wind and natural gas. He’s been running ads during national programming including the national news that runs at 5:30 central time.
He wants to put up wind turbines in the Midwest to replace the 22 percent of power produced from natural gas. Then that natural gas can be used for transportation.
He was in Washington D.C. today to get Congress to act on his plan. He referred to how Eisenhower declared an emergency to build the interstate system in the 50’s and 60’s. He told them they should follow his lead and suggested an energy emergency. He said that oil could raise to $300 a barrel in the next 10 years because of depleting supplies.
On his website, PickensPlan.com he says that Natural Gas is less than $1 a gallon. Cars like the Honda Civic Gx natural gas vehicle can run on natural gas. What he doesn’t say is that natural gas stations are rare. You can get a special machine that will compress natural gas to put in your car for your home, but it takes 16 hours to fill up your tank. Consumer Reports also reports that the car only gets about 180 miles to the tank. Another downside for me is Chris and I hate our gas company, they charge for maintenance for a building that doesn’t exist. They also charge for the gas, then, on the bill, charge a fee for it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but the bill doesn’t make a lot of sense to us either. We would really hate for it to get higher than it already is.
However, these are clean running cars. The emissions are far less than current combustion engines and would be better for the environment.
I’m torn. I would really have to see it work before i bought into the idea at all.
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Tags: wind turbines, website, system
A lift on the offshore drilling ban signed by W… Doesn’t really mean much
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Jul 24 2008 | 0 CommentsToday President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling, putting pressure on the Democrat-run congress to approve more exploration for oil.
Ah…the thing is, nothing will be done unless congress approves the lift also. So it’s just really a lot of talk now. Bush seems to think that, according to his exact words, "The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress." Nice.
I oppose offshore drilling, as it doesn’t alleviate our dependency on oil at all. Right now people are angry and looking to alternative means of energy. Once oil prices go down (which it is doubtful that offshore drilling would have a major impact on the price of oil) people would once again become complacent with the way things are and our environment suffers.
The ban was created to protect beaches and the money brought in by tourists. I doubt people would be as interested in the Gulf Coast if it ALL looked like Biloxi, MS. I know that Biloxi’s beach isn’t abysmal because of offshore drilling, it’s awful because it’s Biloxi. It smells funny, honestly.
In an article I read today about this, Nancy Pelosi had a really great quote about the whole thing, "Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil…The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas." She mirrors my opinion.
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Tags: fun, gas price, U.S.
