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Slim Picken's Energy Plan: Separating the Beauty from the Beast
One of my favorite Disney movies as a child was Beauty and the Beast. From a child who was born with a thrill for taking ugly, mean things and making them beautiful (I was really into painting old furniture), you could see the appeal: a stubborn and self-serving beast was transformed into a sweet, giving prince through the healing power of love. Oh, if only real life was this idyllic.
Unfortunately, in the real world, wealth and power don't magically yield to justice and conscience, even if it's presented as such on the surface. Take oil tycoon and bill-footer of last election's Swift Boat crusade T. Boone Pickens. Pickens has been on a $58 million publicity tour to promote his plan to erect wind turbines in the Midwest.
“The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power,” the website for his plan says. “The [United States'] addiction [to foreign oil] has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis.” Pickens has leased hundreds of thousands of acres for a giant wind farm in West Texas, where he plans to erect 2,700 turbines and produce energy for urban areas such as Dallas and Fort Worth.
A Texas oilman pursuing his own private crusade to make wind power a reality in the United States? Sounds like a fairy tale come true, right? Not quite. Half of Pickens's plan calls for more support for wind power. The other half calls for a large-scale conversion of motor vehicles to natural gas -- another finite, carbon-spewing fossil fuel. Kind of like shifting our addiction from heroin to crack cocaine.
It turns out that Pickens' main concern is not really about the harm that our country's main sources of energy are having on our environment. Turns out, as predictable as it is, the oilman's man concerns boil down to money. Pickens plan for wind energy is both a lucrative investment for himself, and a plan to address the increasing costs of energy in the United States, so it comes as no surprise that he plans on taking the freed up natural gas from his wind turbines and using it for transportation. It's a win-win plan for him, but a win-lose plan for the public and the planet.
Which is why it's a little disconcerting to find that many a progressive leader are singing his praises. With all the latest compromises our Democratic-controlled Congress has been rolling out- FISA, the war budget, etc. - the Pickens Plan poses a similar danger for the ostensibly greener party not doing what is needed to turn our country around.
Pickens is testifying before Congress and running ads calling on the American people to back his Pickens Plan. It's clear that Pickens is seeking widespread support for his half-baked energy plan. Let's tell him we'll support his plan if he drops or changes the second half -- like, say, a crash program to double fuel efficiency standards, accelerate the development of plug-in hybrids and electric cars, and bring our public transportation systems into the 21st century, including high-speed rail. Email Melissa McKay, PR for The Pickens Plan, and tell her that we want Pickens to finish what he started.
Every so often, a leader says something so simply and clearly that it's almost impossible to ignore. That happened last week with Al Gore's challenge.
More than a quarter of a million people have watched the speech, and major papers across the country continue to write about it. Watch the highlights here.
He challenged America to generate 100% of our electricity from sources that do not lead to global warming -- and to do it within 10 years. Meeting this ambitious goal would create millions of new jobs, lead to permanently lower energy costs for families and help America lead the fight against global warming. Watch his powerful speech here.
John McCain couldn't ignore it, saying "if the Vice President says it's doable, I believe it's doable."
And Barack Obama said, "I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels."
Please take a quick look. If you've already seen it, please forward it to at least ten friends. The technology to make this shift is ready. What is missing is political will -- and that's why we need more people to see this speech and join the We Campaign.
Sincerely,
Matt, Lauren, Melissa and rest of the online team
www.wecansolveit.org
I don't know I kind of like T Boone's ideas. It's pragmatic, it's a real plan - not pie in the sky. His main thrust is to do something NOW -- WHILE we make long term plans. Also, I think his emphasis is getting off of FOREIGN oil, as opposed to environmental issues.
I have seen the ads but not really taken time to look into what he is proposing, so I appreciate your take on it.
In other places- people have been accusing me of not being pragmatic. But my main concern is that his motives are not in the right place, and if a more lucrative take on this plan presents itself, I totally see this guy screwing us. And I just wanted to tell the truth about what people are praising so heavily as being amazing for the environment.
Okay so where's the evidence that he wil totally screw us, aside from that he was a Swift boater lol and an oilman :~) - the guy is 80 years old --- sometimes pragmatism and capitalism can marry and bring forth good progeny :~)?
We do have a lot of natural gas they say, and the wind farms sound great to me -- and we could stabilize our money and quit having to fight wars for oil if we could just get our resources within our own borders -- ALL THE WHILE WORKING on Big Al's plans for the long term. T Boone himself says it's a short term solution -- a triage if you will to stop the bleeding.
bbl - dog is salivating for her dinner.
- And sometimes they turn out like Sam Walton's Brude of wanting little brats.
By Susan Rowe on Jul 24, 2008 4:57 PM EDTThere is a reason T. Boone Pickens is a Republican.
Sacramento, CA: State election officials have approved a measure for the November 2008 ballot that mandates probation for non-violent drug offenders and reduces pot possession penalties.
Sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance, Proposition 5 (aka the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act), would expand the diversion of non-violent offenders to drug treatment and increase funding for state-sponsored rehabilitation programs. The proposal would also reduce minor marijuana possession penalties from a misdemeanor (punishable by a $100 criminal fine with a criminal record) to a non-criminal infraction (punishable by a $100 civil fine with no criminal record).
According to the NORA campaign website, "Because NORA would sharply limit the incarceration of nonviolent offenders, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office projects that the measure would save California $1 billion or more each year in prison and parole costs. … [T]he state would see additional net savings of $2.5 billion over several years as prison-construction costs would be reduced by NORA's reforms."
www.norml.org
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