T. Boone Pickens' wind farm plan dies out
T. Boone Pickens has spent $60 million in the last year promoting the "Pickens Plan," an idea for a giant wind farm in Texas. Now, the billionaire oil man is saying he will postpone the project for at lesat a couple of years. The first hints that things weren't going as planned came last November, when PIckens couldn't get a loan to finance the farm. Pickens made the delay official yesterday, blaming the tight financial markets and trouble distributing the energy that was to be generated. The 81-year-old Pickens was valued at $3 billion in 2007.Today, Pickens' told NPR that people still want renewables and that the wind farm will someday come to fruition. Until then, though, he's still touting natural gas as a replacement for oil and said he would find places to install the 667 wind turbines that he had already ordered for the farm. There's a video report on the cancellation after the jump. Thanks to Yanquetino for the tip!
[Source: CNN]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Don 6:30PM (7/08/2009)
I wonder if he received pressure from outside forces.
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jpm 6:43PM (7/08/2009)
Why do you need a loan when you're worth billions? Also, you're not exactly a young man... dump all your savings into the wind mill farm and right the wrongs of oil before it's too late.
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floorman56 6:48PM (7/08/2009)
Because he needs 12 billion and is only worth 3 billion
jpm 6:52PM (7/08/2009)
fair enough
Throwback 9:10AM (7/09/2009)
Also, he is in business to make money, as he has repeatedly said. Not to save the world.
jpm 5:55PM (7/09/2009)
well when you're not to far from death and you're a billionaire, you might as well save the world just for the hell of it
UtahAlumnus 7:10PM (7/08/2009)
Wind energy has never been effecient or practical. People have no idea the costs involved. He only set this up to be politically correct, but all along new he couldn't make money from it.
As the Global Warming movement peters out, he doens't feel the need to throw away money to prove how much he "cares" about the environment.
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Yanquetino 7:40PM (7/08/2009)
UtahAlumnus: Methinks you are (literally) tilting at windmills.
"Wind energy has never been effecient or practical."? I wonder what the Spaniards, Dutch, and any sailboat skipper the world over would have to say about that.
Yes, it might be more expensive to install wind generators at this point, but there is no question that wind power is certainly cleaner and that the costs will come down in time. Frankly, I would rather pay more for non-polluting wind (and solar) power installed in the western Utah deserts than save a few bucks by continuing to burn coal mined in Price, Utah.
Mark 8:42PM (7/08/2009)
UtahAlumnus:
Why does he need to be "politically correct"? Surely he is not running for office. He's 81 and I assume he is thinking of his legacy.
Chris M 8:48PM (7/08/2009)
Wind energy can indeed be efficient and practical. If well designed windmills are placed in a good wind site, the amortized cost per Kwh produced is competitive to coal, and less than natural gas or diesel. There is no fuel cost, the only operating costs are for minor maintenance and amortizing the purchase cost. Of course, if placed in a poor wind site it won't do at all well, so just don't put windmills in a wind sheltered site.
T Boone Pickens main concern is the excessive importing of petroleum, and all the petrodollars going to hostile regimes. AFAIK, he hasn't said much about global warming. Of course, the Pickens Plan isn't completely altruistic, he intended to make a profit on his windfarm, but hey, there isn't anything wrong with doing well by doing good.
Matt 9:56PM (7/08/2009)
http://www.patgray.com/?p=2073
T Boone Prickens is only concerned about himself and his plan to privatize water. The wind farm is a ploy to get eminent domain along the pipeline route. What's worse is the particular location of his water theft, being the Ogallala aquifer. He is a scam artist, and if he succeeds will destroy an already devastated natural resource in the American west.
On an entirely different note, I hope he does find a good home for the wind turbines on order. Wind is by far the cleanest energy with the least amount of impact, and is a great compliment to solar and water power. Besides, windmills are beautiful, I'd love one in my yard (if it'd fit :)
kballs 10:21PM (7/08/2009)
+1 on Matt's comment. T Bone had greedy ulterior motives and was using wind power, natural gas, and reducing dependence on foreign oil as a facade for his plan to divert water from the Ogallala Aquifer down into Texas for city/residential water use (the pipeline would have been in the same right of way as the power lines for the wind farms)... the farms in the mid-west are already drawing out many times more water every year than goes in, and someday the US's abundant food supply (arguably what made us the most powerful economic power) will be greatly threatened. T Bone would have accelerated the threat in order to make a quick buck.
FitFan 7:49PM (7/08/2009)
Damn. I was hoping we'd get something useful out of T. Boone before he dies.
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dave 9:45PM (7/08/2009)
He still intends to build hundreds of wind generators. He just needs to find locations that are close to available power line capacity.
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BlackbirdHighway 12:03AM (7/09/2009)
Anyone who could finance the swiftboaters is a despicable scoundrel and should not be trusted.
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Nick 1:27AM (7/09/2009)
He is a scam artist, and his plan was no exception.
But like someone pointed out, he's old and has only (statistically) a few years left. I would spend it all on a huge project with a good impact rather than hand it to some 'managing trust'.
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Richard 8:25AM (7/09/2009)
Mr. Pickens is politically conservative and makes no pretense about it. He wants to make money and makes no pretense about that either. He has been extemely successful in business. He made himself rich exploring for oil and gas with his early business, Mesa Petroleum based in Amarillo, TX and then parlayed that into billions with brilliant financial trades in the 1980's. Then he was divorced and for those of you who do not know he was almost broke in the 1990's after oil dropped to $10 a barrel. Despite being almost broke he moved to Dallas and used his business knowledge to start over. Sensing that oil and gas would come back he invested heavily in risky oil and gas futures and made himself a billionaire again. He has given away more money than I can possibly know, but i do know he is one of the largest benefactors of Oklahoma State University, West Texas A&M University and countless other charities all across Oklahoma and Texas. I have seen news articles of him giving over $100 million to various charities. Unlike Madoff or Sanford (real scam artists), Mr. Pickens gives away his own money to charities.
Boone Pickens is a ruthless businessman but he plays by the rules. He and I differ on what those rules should be, but he does earn money legally and gives it away generously. He thinks the Dallas area will someday run out of water and wants to pipe it from the Ogalla reservoir. The wind farm would have been a two-fer. He would have gotten a utility easement for power that could also have been used for water lines. That was frankly, brilliant. Whether or not he should be piping that water is open to debate, but it was a brilliant business idea to satisfy two needs, water and power with the cost of one easement line.
I totally understand the people who disagree with Mr. Picken's politics, I do myself, but he is not a scam artist. He is an astute businessman who hates the idea we are sending billions of dollars a month to finance middle east countries when he knows there is natural gas, cleaner burning and easy to get, right here in the USA. On that, I agree with him and support his efforts to green America. I expect he thinks global warming is bunk, but his opinion on the matter is irrelvant if his efforts are honest and result in a cleaner fuel bought right here.
As to the wind farms, he wants to make money, pure and simple, and do it by reducing middle east oil. Again, motives aside, it is a good idea that I respect.
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Orng Crush 11:01AM (7/20/2009)
Amen. I love how alternative energy proponents distrust anyone who wants to actually make money on alternative energy, yet they cry foul when federal subsidies go to alternative energy.
Joel Cox 10:49AM (7/10/2009)
I would rather give my energy dollars to Pickins & have him donate it to colleges or at least keep it here in the USA, than to give it to foreign oil to support terrorists & defamation of the USA. Besides with all of our politicians, we have all of the hot air we need for generations to come to power our windmills. The last time I checked, they were determined to be absolutely pollution free. Isn't that worth something.
We had a similar situation in Colorado. A large solar farm was built, but there weren't any transmission lines heavy enough for transmitting it.
PEOPLE, you have to understand that the utility companies don't want to lose there investment in their coal plants & they want TOTAL control of utilities. They are not happy about having to accept power from other sources than theirs. They aren't concerned about costs, they just pass it through to us.
We all say we want freedom from foreign oil, think about freedom from the utility companies. Higher utility costs are a reality & it is huge!
Nozferat 6:29PM (7/13/2009)
LOL....terrorists and defamation of the USA? Why don't you go whine to Congress and Wall Street about defamating and raping the USA?
Like the terrorists are forcing you to use oil, buy a big SUV, and act self-righteous when it comes to sacrificing a little of your "American Dream."
Stop blaming others for your own self-inflicted greed and stupidity.