Baraka....I'm not a fan of T Boone, the oil widlcatter turned slash and burn corporate takeover mogul and funder of the Swift Boat ads, but the Pickens Plan makes sense to me.
It focuses on wind power..the US has the largest potential for wind power of any country in the world.
The plan is to increase the use of wind power to supply over 20% of US power needs and then converting natural gas currently used for power generation to transportation. The result is a significant decline in reliance on foreign oil....and its clean....its renewable...and its cheap.
The
Pickens Plan.
In his 2006 State of the Union address, Bush proclaimed that "America is addicted to oil"...then went on to suggest, in effect, that if we're addicted, it should be to ourselves, rather than to others....while at the same time, cutting funding for some renewable energy programs in each of the last three or four budgets.
An addiction is still an addiction.
IMO, it would be far better to aggressively pursue a goal to lower that addiction rate....and accomplish other goals as well (ie cleaner environment) than to continue to feed the addiction.
An interesting partnership may emerge on the issue....T Boone Pickens, the Republican oil guy and Al Gore (
clean energy goal articulated today), the Democratic climate guy....to lead such an effort.
It certainly wont happen if the next president (and vice president) develop a national energy plan in secret with only oil company executives at the table.