Optimistic: T. Boone Pickens Expects Obama Administration to Implement Pickens’ Plan
Billionaire American entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens is optimistic that the Obama administration will bring the United States’ energy infrastructure into the new millennium by implementing his plan for energy independence.
After eight long years there is finally a cause for hope here in the United States. George Bush may still be in office, but right now all America’s problems are President-Elect Obama’s to solve (see Obama Recession, thanks Rush), but he seems ready for them.
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As New York Times columnist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman says, it is time for Obama to act swiftly and implement New Deal policies for the new millennium. Many have said that FDR’s borderline socialist policies failed because he spent too much money, Krugman feels that he did not invest enough. The Pickens’ Plan, as it is so poetically called, may be the starting point for such an investment.
Why is Pickens’ Plan important? Simply because it’s main goal is to divert all of our oil and natural gas to the transportation sector. Factories will no longer use natural gas because they will be powered either on site or through an electric grid powered by wind and solar. The plan stresses efficiency and centrality. It could also potentially save the US $300 billion in oil expenditures. Citing Obama’s plan to end dependency on foreign oil in the next ten years, Pickens expects that the first step will be implementing major parts of his plan.
The major parts of the plan involve the US specially equipping larger vehicles (buses, trucks, etc.) to run on natural gas. This would take a huge load off of our dependence on oil, in turn causing prices to drop because factories and businesses will have no need for it. Demand for oil would come solely from consumers, as would carbon dioxide emissions (the nitrogen oxide emissions will come from the natural gas burning buses).
Pickens has been criticized for the plan, but has responded “If you don’t like my plan, get a plan.” Of course he is a businessman trying to make money, but he does drive a hard bargain. During a recession time like this, a wind initiative would be a huge help to the country. It would create jobs as well as help stabilize our energy future. Pickens has also promised to invest $1 trillion in the project, which should certainly make it easier for the Obama administration to begin implementing the plan.
The plan can work, but only time will tell if some or all of it gets implementes. Pickens cannot do it alone, he needs the government to help. The Obama Administration seems to be attacking the transition with tenacity, which is a good sign for the plan and our energy future as well. I really hope that Obama’s message of change wasn’t just a campaign slogan. So far he has hit the ground running and I look forward to seeing where his administration will go from here.
Want more to read? Check out these links on economics and US energy policy:
- Depression Economics Return
- And for laughs, Rush Limbaugh again. Thanks to the Baltimore Sun for the article.
Source: Yahoo! News (via Biofuels Digest)
Photo Credits: Thanks to Tom Saint’s Flickr photostream under a Creative Commons License.
Terrible article.
Pickens plan will cost an order of magnitude more than promised and will not deliver energy independence or reliability of the power grid.
You should study (and practice) engineering if you want to be taken seriously by knowledgeable people, not just regurgitate what you read over at the Utne Reader of Grist.
The T Boone plan is not based in reality. What about the millions of homes using natural gas the price rise will be as bad as the oil bump of the last 5 years. Who builds the swithcover infrastructure and how much does the T and Nancy P profit? Nuclear, clean coal and drill baby drill. Then lets see what our engineers can come up with in the meantime. Wind not consistent, solar on a sunny day. T Boone is in this to make money, my plan is outlined above find a better one. Global warming concerns step outside.
Do you know why Obama said 10 years to energy independence? Cause then he can waste taxpayer money for 8 years by giving it to his campaign contributors with green sounding projects. He’ll be gone in ten years with just a bunch of money wasted and no energy independence. Remember, he told a San Francisco paper he wanted electricity rates to skyrocket.
This billionaire can’t possibly have any ulterior motives to switch our main energy source from something that’s made him rich to something else entirely. Naaawwwww
First, let me agree with those of you who say that this is not the right site for Bush blaming and Obama worship (they’re both maggots from similar political flies, IMHO). But having said that, and Athiony having set the tone, I will lower myself, but just a little.
Anthony implies that our current state of energy dependence is solely the fault of the current administration, totally ignoring the fact that it took DECADES for us to get to this point, courtesy of both Democrats and Republicans (including Lord Clinton).
But, that’s the typical Obamatron mentality. They can’t help having unrealistic expectations of their messiah, and they will learn that they were duped by an agenda-driven media to vote for the candidate they (the media) selected. There was nothing honest or fair on the part of the media during this election cycle. Since Vietnam and Watergate, the media has appointed itself guardians of what the American public should know, since we are obviously mere neophytes to their vision of a utopian Amerika!
But don’t be too harsh on him. He is young and very likely has no political memory of the Carter years (he promised change, too, and boy, did we get it). Let’s just hope that the incoming administration isn’t Carter on steroids. I don’t think I could stand having that much fun again!
As an American, I sincerely hope Obama doesn’t screw the pooch, and actually succeeds. But as a mature realist, I see a bad moon rising for our nation, with his quasi-socialist plans to transform OUR nation into what HE thinks it should be.
The Pickens Plan has it’s pro’s and con’s, as does any plan (yes, including Obama’s).
Shouldn’t our energy policy be “all of the above”? (I seem to recall one candidate running on that theme, and it wasn’t Obama). Why is so much mental and emotional energy spent shooting holes in ideas, instead of refining them into successful implementation?
None of the alternatives can do it all, by themselves. They must be integrated to compliment each other. What’s so hard to understand about that? Haven’t we learned from overloading the petroleum basket with our fragile energy eggs?
I really detest this “all or nothing” mentality our short-attention-span society has adopted (or been taught by college professors?). It’s intellectually dishonest and naively (and dangerously) short-sighted.
It’s the same mentality that believes we are at war with Iraq, instead of terrorists, and that we are in two SEPERATE wars instead of one big, global, long-lasting one against extreme religious idealism on two combat fronts. (The very same idealism that would decapitate liberal scholars and Hollywood Halfwits, if they are allowed to succeed.)
I have a questions for you, Anthony. You say we have “nothing to show” for our struggle against terrorists, so…what do we have to show for our struggle against fascism (you do know that Germany never attacked us, don’t you?), imperialism and communism?
Finally, for all of you who fancy Obama as another FDR, remeber that he implimented policies to gaod Japan into attacking, so he could bring America into World War 2. Is that what you’re looking for in Obama? Or is the fact that FDR’s economic policies PROLONGED the Great Depression, forcing America into a Quasi-socialist way of life, dependent on the government?
Keep repeating: Spell check is my friend!
We can not continue to be dependent upon foreign oil and send billions of dollars to countries that could care less about us. We do have plenty of wind and always will. The power can be harnessed. No plan is perfect, but it is a start.
You forgot the water rights issue he wants them.