The Pickens Profile You Haven’t Read

Reall

I agree completely, sort of. Mr. Pickens is a seemingly brilliant man. He knows that oil supplies are running out. The next "big money" is going to come from renewable resources. I just have an itsy-bitsy problem with giving a private company "government" powers, taxpayer dollars, pumping water from an aquifer that belongs to the people of several states, and taxpayers perhaps paying for the utility lines that will bring us the electricity that we can then purchase, for a second time. I'm all for wind and solar power, but if you are a "for profit" company, then you should pay your own way. BTW, the name of his "private" government agency is; Roberts County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1. Only, it's not part of the government of Roberts County, the water pipeline is proposed to sell water starting with Dallas/Fort Worth, a long way from Roberts County, and the directors of this "governmental" water district are certainly (well) connected to Mr. Pickens. If Mr. Pickens wants to do his "good deed" without taxpayer dollars funding his money machine, and without taking land from the owners through "imminent domain", then great. But leave the Ogallala Aquifer water alone. Of course, if he was going to do all of that the "right way", there would have been absolutely no need for the Roberts County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1 to be formed, or for Texas to pass the $5B in taxpayer funded financing for utility line constuction, would there. It's a giant money scam being perpetrated on the taxpayers yet again, this time in the name of "helping the environment".

So writers Stone and Harris touch, barely, on the issue of T. Boone Pickens getting a Fresh Water Supply District, normally a government agency, for themselves, for a parcel of land (reportedly 8 acres) smaller than many homesteads in Texas, AND imminent domain. Now there's the key. This "private" FWSD can condemn, through imminent domain, land belonging to private citizens, for personal profit. And, no mention of how as a FWSD, they also have the right to use imminent domain to take property for the right of way to build power transmission lines. Gee, you think that he might use imminent domain to hook those power lines to his wind farm? Nah. Texas voted to provide $5B dollars to build utility lines to do this very thing. But I'm sure he won't take any money from Texas taxpayers, he's a billionaire trying to do good. Read their website at least, would you? And when he starts selling the water under his FWSD, it won't be 8 acres that will be drained, it will be the entire Ogallala Aquifer, that runs under a number of states. Oh, and the price he wants to sell the water for? Several times higher than similar governmental agencies sell it for. But then again, this "private" government he's got going is a "for profit" enterprise. Whatever you do, don't go into real detail and anger a billionaire with clout. He may be out to do nothing but good, but the question remains, for who?

Pickens has some good ideas. How many more of the ideas he nows touts as the salvation of our country would have been policy, and producing results now, if he had not Swift-boated John Kerry? I wonder if his depression has anything to do with throwing the US, and the world's climate, under the bus for the sake of his oil buddy Bush?

Please note that T. bone Pickens plan calls for huge government subsidies AND wide spread eminent domain siezures to create large scale centrally located energy systems that will fall, as always, into the hands of the same profiteers who will tout the virtues of the "free market" once Santa has come down the chimney on thier behalf. If this initial $200 billion were put into subsidizing photo voltaic installations on residential roof tops the need for huge federally subsidized yet privately controlled distribution sytems would evaporate. Naturally this would put the power to create energy in the hands of individual consumers and that is a fate worse than death to every oil man in Texas.

people need to focus on the natural gas portion of the pickens plan. Natural gas is ALREADY powering many municipal vehicles and buses across america. natural gas is the cleanest burning energy to date, meaning that less pollution goes into the air from natural gas. natural gas is abundant right here in the states, it is easily transported in pipelines, and most cars can be easily and inexpensively retrofitted to run on natural gas. All we need is someone with the forward thinking to invest in natural gas filling stations, and we could cut our oil imports significantly, while putting Americans to work drilling and producing it. It could cut our petroleum imports in half in just a couple of years. Wake up, America!

T. Boone Pickpocket is NOT to be trusted. Be VERY careful about what you believe when it comes to T.

there is a reason why nuclear energy hasn't been cultivated today. ask yourself this: if its so fine and dandy, why have the Republicans done nothing to bring it about? Surely corporate profits/lobbyists are a factor...but c'mon...who wouldn't pass up the chance to lead America into an energy independent era?

The fact is that whether it is offshore drilling or nuclear energy, we need more immediate solutions to the crisis. None of McCain's plans have addressed the immediate needs of this country. We must not forget that nuclear energy leads to toxic waste that remains radioactive for 1000's of years. Research in the past has shown that there is a very serious and grave possibility that leaks can/will occur. There is reason why such an energy plan has not been cultivated yet.

If you think about it John McCain plan for forty-five new nuclear power plants is reasonable, needed and attainable. Our current 108 nuclear power plants supply twenty (20) percent of our electricity requirements. This is amazing considering that it has been thirty years since there has been new construction on new nuclear power plants anywhere in the United States. Construction on new nuclear power plants has occurred throughout the world but not in the United States thanks to Democratic leadership. In France, nuclear power supplies 80 percent of their electricity needs. Because 108 nuclear power plants are generating twenty percent of our needs, an additional 45 nuclear power plants will only increase the percentage of nuclear power to roughly 28 percent of our needs well short of French eighty percent nuclear power generation of electricity. John McCain proposals are reasonable and will help lead us to energy independence. Democrats under the leadership of Barack Obama want to study the issue for another 30 years. By that time the only remaining United States builder of nuclear power plants General Electric will have gone the way of Westinghouse and sold its nuclear construction division to a foreign owned company Toshiba Corporation of Japan. Given the Democratic led hostile business environment for nuclear power in the United States, we will have no United States owned companies capable of building nuclear power plants.

The reality is that one nuclear power plant will have a greater contribution to our energy independence than all the contributions of solar, wind, and thermal energy. Only the proposals of John McCain on nuclear power, offshore drilling, wind, and solar energy will make the idea of United States energy independence a reality.

While camping and attending a bluegrass music festival, I took a tour of Comanche Peak Power Plant,the last nuclear power plant built in the United States. The plant is unobtrusive and is at perfect harmony with its environment. It is located near Glen Rose Texas a beautiful area that has bluegrass band festivals in the summer. It is a wonderful scenic country area and home to Dinosaur World and a state park. There are dinosaur tracks from 100 million years ago along the riverbed that can be seen some say are heading in the direction of New York City. The Brazos river flows through and the place is an environmental heaven. There is old green Sinclair Oil Company dinasour statue that stands at the park. Ironically most of the stations and assets of Sinclair Oil Company was bought by Arco Oil Company. Arco Oil Company was a jewell of an American oil company that explored and developed the Alaskan North Slope and at one time owned eighty percent of our Alaskan oil reserves. Arco Oil Company was subsequently bought out later by foreign owned British Petroleum during the second administration of Bill Clinton. The point of this comment is twofold. Democratic hostility toward United States owned energy companies has led to the sale of United States oil companies to foreign interests and that nuclear power plants can even be located next to wonderful wildlife and park areas and make good unobtrusive neighbors. Nuclear power is a friend of the environment and does not emit green house gases.

A MORE SERIOUS REVERSAL OF FORTUNE AWAITS A FEW OIL TOTALITARIANS

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/08/down-side-for-some-petroleum-suppliers.html

The world has shrunk in the past twenty years, and new doors will open for democracy.