What is the Pickens Plan and who is T Boone Pickens? The Pickens plan involves Wind Generators. Lots of em

What is the Pickens Plan and who is T Boone Pickens?

T Boone Pickens is an oil tycoon who is concerned about the future of our nation.Some question his motives but as a Billionaire in his 80's, It is hard for me to believe that his intentions are anything but honorable.Boone Pickens has a plan to make the USA independent or at least a lot less dependent on foreign oil and his plan is appropriately named the "Pickens Plan".Many people criticize the Pickens Plan but I applaud it. Why? Because it makes sense.

What is the Pickens Plan?

The Pickens Plan starts with the fact that we Americans consume 25% of the worlds oil supply while we only account for 4% of the worlds population. We use a lot of oil and therefore drive the demand up which contributes to the rising price of oil.

The Pickens Plan involves re-alocating the natural resources of the United States ..Natural Gas, Oil, Wind, and Coal to better utilize our energy resources and capitolize on what we have an abundance of...Natural Gas.

Natural Gas is currently used to produce a substantial percentage of the nations power. Under the Pickens plan Vehicles would be converted to run on natural gas. Wind energy would replace the natural gas for power generation.

America is addicted to foreign oil

We have been sucking on the teet of the Arab Nations for too long.

It’s an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people.

The addiction has worsened for decades and now it’s reached a point of crisis.

In 1970, we imported only 24% of our oil.

Today we import nearly 70% and that number is growing.As imports grow and world oil prices rise, the amount of money we send to foreign nations every year is staggering. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the united states this year alone — 4 times the annual cost of the Iraq war.Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. Money leaving the shores of the US and going into the pockets of nations who dont really like Americans.

America uses a lot of oil. More than any other nation. Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world.And 21 million of those are used here in the United States.That’s 25% of the world’s oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world’s population.

Can’t we just produce more oil?

Are you smoking crack?

We cannot drill fast enough to get out of this mess.

Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn’t enough of it to keep up with demand.

What’s the good news?The United States has an abundance of wind power.Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains states are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far.The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America’s electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country.

Today’s wind turbines stand up to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. The blades collect the wind’s kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.

Wind power currently accounts for enough energy to serve more than 4.5 million households. That is still only about 1% of current demand, but the potential of wind is much greater.A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over —even if only 20% of wind power could be harnessed.

factoid...Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of theelectricity for the United States at a cost of about $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.

That’s a lot of money, but it’s a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it’s a bargain.

It would be an economic revival for rural America.Developing wind power is an investment in rural America that we need to make. Dont you think becoming independent from foreign oil is better than a 800 billion bailout package for Wall street?To witness the economic promise of wind energy, just look atSweetwater, Texas.

Sweetwater was typical of many small towns in middle-America. With a shortage of good jobs, the youth of Sweetwater were leaving in search of greater opportunities. And the town’s population dropped from 12,000 to under 10,000.

When a large wind power facility was built outside of town, Sweetwater experienced a revival. New economic opportunity brought the town back to life and the population has grown back up to 12,000.

In the Texas panhandle, just north of Sweetwater, is the town of Pampa,where T. Boone Pickens’ Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world.

In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture theturbines and blades. These are high skill jobs that pay on a scale comparable to aerospace jobs.

An added benifit is that wind turbines don’t interfere with farming and grazing, so they don’t threaten food production or existing local economies.

They are a cheap new replacement for foreign oil.

Natural Gas for Cars.

The Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Vehicle is the cleanest internal-combustionvehicle in the world according to the EPA.

Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today.According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.

Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. Thenatural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world.

According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States.

Why so few?

The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one thirdof hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles.

Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of LosAngeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of thenew vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas.

Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices areless than $1 a gallon. Natural gas is our country’s second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply.98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased fromforeign nations.Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially andindustrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow.Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoingdevelopment of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves.While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation.

We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will giveus the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing ourdependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

How do we get it done?

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energyalternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of ourforeign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.On January 20th, 2009, President Elect Barack Obama will take office. Lets let him know we support the Pickens plan.

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