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The Pickens Plan is an
energy policy
Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity (often governmental) has decided to address issues of energy development including energy conversion, distribution and use as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to contri ...
proposal announced July 8, 2008, by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
businessman
T. Boone Pickens
Thomas Boone Pickens Jr. (May 22, 1928 – September 11, 2019) was an American business magnate and financier. Pickens chaired the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raider during the 1980 ...
. Pickens wanted to reduce American dependence on imported oil by investing approximately
$US1
trillion
''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions:
* 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the meaning in both American and British English.
* 1,000,000,000,0 ...
in new
wind turbine farms for power generation, which he believed would allow the
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
used for power generation to be shifted to fuel trucks and other heavy vehicles with
Compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...
. Pickens stated that his plan could reduce by $300 billion (43%) the amount the country spends annually on foreign oil.
Proposal
The main proposals of the plan are:
# Private industry would fund and install thousands of
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
s in the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
, which Pickens refers to as the potential "wind corridor" of the United States due to favorable wind resources and geographic location. Pickens estimates that these turbines could generate enough power to provide 20 percent or more of the country's electricity supply.
# Government would pay for electric power transmission lines to connect the turbine farms to the power grid. They would provide energy to the Midwest, South and Western regions of the country.
# With wind energy providing a large portion of the nation's electricity, the natural gas that is currently used to fuel power plants would be used instead as a fuel for thousands of vehicles. To increase efficiency, the Plan puts an emphasis on natural gas-burning fleets of trucks and buses. Thus, the demand for petroleum products made from imported oil would be reduced.
Timetable
Pickens thought his plan that would provide 22% of electricity from wind power and the conversion for vehicles from gasoline to gas could be accomplished in less than 10 years with the right leadership.
However, according to Chuck McGowin, senior project manager at the
Electric Power Research Institute
EPRI, is an American independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity to help address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affor ...
, a nonprofit organization funded by the electric power industry, the timetable was too tight.
Dave Hamilton, director for global warming and energy projects at the
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
agreed: "That is extremely aggressive .. But it's in the right direction. It's a good thing we have an oilman saying we can't drill our way out of this problem."
Former U.S. vice president
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
, who had spent recent years informing people about global warming, opined that all electricity generation should be completely fossil-fuel free in the next 10 years.
Wind power status and potential
Wind power had been experiencing
exponential growth
Exponential growth is a process that increases quantity over time. It occurs when the instantaneous rate of change (that is, the derivative) of a quantity with respect to time is proportional to the quantity itself. Described as a function, a q ...
in the United States for several years when Pickens announced his plan.
Wind power in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
grew very rapidly, 2400% from 1999 to 2007. In another large state, California, wind generation increased by 48% in the same period.
The cost of wind power generation has decreased by about 80% over the last 20 years because of technological advances and is now cost-competitive with other energy sources. Wind-generated electricity can be produced at 5 to 6 cents per kWh.
A yardstick used to determine locations with high potential wind energy production is referred to as
Wind Power Density (WPD). It is a calculation relating to the effective force of the wind at a particular location, frequently expressed in terms of the elevation above ground level over a period of time. It takes into account wind velocity and mass. Color coded maps are frequently prepared for a particular area described, for example, as "Mean Annual Power Density at 50 Meters." The results of the above calculation are entered into an index developed by the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and d ...
and referred to as "NREL CLASS." The larger the WPD calculation, the higher it is rated by class.
The Pickens Plan calls for increasing the installed wind power capacity by at least a factor of ten from its 2008 level by 2018. This would tap only a small fraction of
total U.S. wind power potential, which is estimated to be as much as 16 times more than the year-2005 electricity demand in the United States.
Technical issues
Power generation and transmission lines
![High voltage transmission towers and lines](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/High_voltage_transmission_towers_and_lines.jpg)
Pickens says that his plan could generate enough wind power to provide 22 percent of the country's electricity.
[ The ]Institute for Energy Research
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that, according to itself, conducts research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains ...
(IER), an organization that is funded by the oil industry, disagrees. The IER claims that Pickens' plan relies on government subsidies and that producing large amounts of wind power is not a viable option. Instead, the IER advocates "less government for more abundant and affordable energy."
Pickens acknowledges that natural gas would still be required for peak electricity demand and additional infrastructure would be needed to distribute the wind energy across the country.[ New transmission lines, worth $64 billion to $128 billion, would be needed to carry the power from the wind turbines to the cities.][ Pickens testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and said the government should begin building transmission lines for wind-generated power in the same way that President Eisenhower did by declaring an emergency to build the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s. As an alternative, Pickens proposed that the government should provide the right of way on private land and extend tax credits so the private sector can build the lines.
Kenneth Medlock III, an energy fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and a critic of Pickens' Plan, said "A lot of what he's trying to do is add value to a ]stranded asset
Stranded assets are "assets that have suffered from unanticipated or premature write-downs, devaluations or conversion to liabilities". Stranded assets can be caused by a variety of factors and are a phenomenon inherent in the 'creative destructi ...
."
Despite the recession, Denver oil man Philip Anschutz is moving forward with the construction of a wind farm in southern Wyoming and a transmission line to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California.
Intermittency
One of the challenges
Challenge may refer to:
* Voter challenging or caging, a method of challenging the registration status of voters
* Euphemism for disability
* Peremptory challenge, a dismissal of potential jurors from jury duty
Places
Geography
*Challenge, C ...
with using wind to replace natural gas is the intermittent nature of wind energy, since the same wind conditions are not always present.
According to a 2007 study by Archer & Jacobson published in the ''Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology'', interconnecting ten or more widely separated wind farms allows 33 to 47% of the total energy produced (15–20% of nominal capacity) to be used as reliable, baseload electric power, as long as minimum criteria are met for wind speed and turbine height.
To dispatch power when the wind isn't blowing, backup power plants would be needed, according to Paul Fremont, an electric utility analyst at the investment bank Jefferies & Co.[ Natural gas plants can quickly be brought online to supply peaking capacity during periods of low wind or peak demand.]
According to Art Holland, a director at Pace Global Energy Services, the US will need to replace 140,000 MW of gas plant capacity over the next 10 years due to plant retirements.
This translates to twice as much wind capacity due to the difference in capacity factor
The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the theoretical maximum electrical energy output over that period. The theoretical maximum energy output of a given installation is de ...
s.
Instead of dispatching additional power generation, energy could be conserved on demand. The Smart power grid
A smart grid is an electrical grid which includes a variety of operation and energy measures including:
*Advanced metering infrastructure (of which smart meters are a generic name for any utility side device even if it is more capable e.g. a f ...
, an intelligent power distribution network currently being researched and developed, can reduce power consumption at the client side during peak hours and thereby lessen our dependence on gas for load following
A load-following power plant, regarded as producing mid-merit or mid-priced electricity, is a power plant that adjusts its power output as demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day. Load-following plants are typically in between base l ...
.
Storing electricity is currently significantly more expensive than using dispatchable generation
Dispatchable generation refers to sources of electricity that can be programmed ''on demand'' at the request of power grid operators, according to market needs. Dispatchable generators may adjust their power output according to an order.
Non-disp ...
, but it can be done. Wind energy can be stored by pumping water uphill when the wind is blowing, and then releasing it through turbine generators when the electricity is needed. TVA's Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant
Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant is a pumped-storage hydroelectric underground power station in Marion County, just west of Chattanooga in the U.S. state of Tennessee.
The facility is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (T ...
near Chattanooga, TN is just one example of many such installations that already exist in the US. Another option is to uprate the peak generating capacity of existing hydroelectric dams by adding more generator units; this allows a hydroelectric plant to buffer the variable output of wind farms on the grid, by accumulating river water during periods of strong winds, and releasing extra water when winds are calm and power demand is high. A dam that impounds a large reservoir can store and release large amounts of water by adjusting the reservoir level within a few meters.
Compressed-air energy storage
Compressed-air energy storage (CAES) is a way to store energy for later use using compressed air. At a utility scale, energy generated during periods of low demand can be released during peak load periods.Wild, Matthew, LWind Drives Growing Use ...
is another energy storage mechanism. When there is excess electrical energy production, air is compressed and stored in a limestone cavern. Then when the energy is needed again, the compressed air generates electricity by blowing through a turbine.
Vanadium redox batteries are being used to store energy and level loads from wind generation projects. The excess energy is stored chemically in different ionic forms of vanadium in a dilute sulphuric acid electrolyte. The reaction can be reversed, which allows the battery to be charged, discharged and recharged.
Making the transition
Pickens' Plan proposes that the natural gas that is currently used to fuel power plants be used instead as a fuel for class 7 and 8 semis. Ken Medlock, a research fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy
Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, also known as the Baker Institute, is an American think tank on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1993, it functions as a center for public policy research. It is named ...
at Rice University, says that the US will continue to use natural gas for electric power generation.[ Natural gas burns cleaner than coal, making it an increasingly popular fuel for power plants. Gas plants also produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
The technology needed for ]Compressed Natural Gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...
(CNG) vehicles such as City buses, fork lifts and passenger cars with CNG drivetrains is available now. Honda sells the Civic GX, with a range. In addition, it is possible to convert vehicles to run on CNG in addition to leaving the conventional fuel injection intact, allowing the driver to switch back and forth at will. Kits are available for the do-it-yourselfer. One can buy a CNG compressor called Phill that hooks up to the city natural gas line making it possible to refuel a CNG car at home.
On the other hand, the IER believes that natural gas vehicles are "a niche product." Patricia Monahan, believes "It's going to be a big price tag" to switch to CNG vehicles. Monahan considers CNG an excellent fuel for running small fleets of vehicles which log heavy mileage per vehicle, such as buses and garbage trucks.[ Vehicles which use large amounts of fuel realize savings more quickly from the lower price of CNG relative to diesel.
In November 2008, Pickens changed his position stating that he wants heavy trucks, not cars running on natural gas.
Rich Kolodziej, President of NGVAmerica, says the very limited distribution network for natural gas is currently available in only 1,200 out of 190,000 gas stations would better serve commercial fleets and long-haul trucks.][
]
Policy issues
Renewable Portfolio Standards
Twenty-four states plus the District of Columbia have Renewable Portfolio Standards in place to set targets for renewable energy in those states. Four more states have set non-binding energy targets.
Economic issues
Funding
The Energy Policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 () is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems ...
created the Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) program, effectively offering interest-free debt to eligible renewable projects.
In October 2008, the CREB program was extended to March 6, 2009.
Since July 2008, Pickens’ Dallas-based investment firm, BP Capital, has lost as much as $2 billion as a result of the falling stock market and credit crunch. Pickens may have lost around $300 million of his personal funds.
Cost of wind vs. natural gas
According to Jerry Taylor, senior fellow at the Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
, using wind to generate most of the nation's electricity would undoubtedly result in higher retail electric rates because wind power is twice as expensive as natural gas-fired generation "and probably more if you take out the subsidies."[ However, the American Wind Energy Association points out that the cost of wind power has dropped by more than 90% in the last 20 years and expects the cost to continue to decline as the industry matures. In contrast, the cost of natural gas is expected to rise. Moreover, the effects on the environment and public health for natural gas are estimated to cost some 0.5 to 2.0 cents per kWh.
Similar costs from wind are marginal.
]
Peak gas
The use of natural gas is a key component to Picken's proposal. There are concerns, however, that gas production has already reached its maximum production rate, a point known as peak gas
Peak gas is the year in which the maximum global natural gas (fossil gas) production rate will be reached, after which the rate of production will enter its terminal decline. Although demand is peaking in the United States and Europe, it continu ...
. US gas production peaked in 1973 at about 24.1 trillion cubic feet, declined until 1985, and has been slowly increasing over the last 23 years. (see figure on left).
According to peak theory, the rate of production enters a terminal decline after the peak. Peak gas has already been confirmed by Exxon's CEO Lee Raymond. In 2005, he said to Reuters that "Gas production has peaked in North America."
The Reuters article continues to say "While the number of U.S. rigs drilling for natural gas has climbed about 20 percent over the last year and prices are at record highs, producers have been struggling to raise output." John DeCicco, a senior fellow at Environmental Defense
Environmental Defense Fund or EDF (formerly known as Environmental Defense) is a United States-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and hu ...
, is critical of the plan because it assumes that gas would remain cheap despite growing demand and increasing reliance on imports as evidenced by proposals for LNG
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
terminals.[
However, implementing Pickens Plan does not require an increase in the supply of natural gas; it calls for a ''shift'' in its use, rather than an ''increase''. Natural gas production has been slightly and consistently increasing in the United States for more than two decades. Proven recoverable U.S. gas reserves have slightly but consistently risen since 1996 and are about the same as in 1976.
Estimates of technically recoverable reserves in the United States vary as they are generated by geological inferences, but the U.S. ]Energy Information Administration
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and publ ...
2009 estimate is 1747 trillion cubic feet, enough to provide domestic production at 2005 rates for nearly 80 years.
Other options
Nuclear power vs. wind power
Pickens' plan will require the construction of large scale wind farms to generate electricity. Critical of the plan, the National Center for Public Policy Research
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a self-described conservative think tank in the United States. Its founding CEO was Amy Ridenour, who was chairwoman. David A. Ridenour, her husband, is president, having served ...
, a self described conservative think tank, asserts that nuclear power plants would be a better alternative than the wind farms.
They say that nuclear power is also environmentally sound and creates very little waste, that nuclear power is also far cheaper than wind power, and that to build the wind farms would take many square miles of land.
Electricity vs. natural gas for powering vehicles
To some, this plan seems to ignore one of the most fruitful paths to cut into America's foreign oil addiction: plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engin ...
s and fully electric vehicles. Wind generated electricity could directly fuel America's ever-more electrified transport sector. Some hybrid owners argue the part that using compressed natural gas as a transportation fuel does not make sense especially when the new wave of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles that are expected to hit the market in the coming years.
The US government is already promoting the adoption of PHEVs and EVs. The $700 billion bailout bill signed by President Bush in 2008 includes tax credits up to $7,500 for US buyers of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
Pickens does not believe that all electric vehicles are viable, especially trucks. In his plan natural gas primarily replaces diesel fuel
Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...
. Pickens frequently makes the statement that "the battery won't move an eighteen wheeler" although batteries, electric drivetrain, and engines for heavy vehicles exist in hybrid buses and a hybrid version of the military's HEMTT heavy lift vehicle.
The Port of Los Angeles and South Coast Air Quality Management District have demonstrated a short-range heavy-duty electric truck manufactured by Balqon Corporation (http://www.balqon.com) capable of hauling a fully loaded cargo container. The current design is capable of pulling a 60,000-pound cargo container at speeds up to 40 mph and has a range of between 30 and 60 miles.
William Tahil of Meridian International Research acknowledges that hybrid or completely electric long-haul semi-trucks are technically possible, but poses the question if there is enough lithium carbonate
Lithium carbonate is an inorganic compound, the lithium salt (chemistry), salt of carbonate with the chemical formula, formula . This white Salt (chemistry), salt is widely used in the processing of metal oxides. It is listed on the World Health O ...
production currently to support the production of the needed batteries.
Gore's Global Warming vs. Pickens Plan
The plans of T. Boone Pickens and Al Gore have some similarities - each lessens the dependence on fossil fuels - but differ in their eventual goals. Pickens specifically wants to see energy security
Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to (relatively) cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven ...
by increasing the use of domestic energy sources including fossil fuels while Gore wants to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels altogether to stop global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. Pickens claims to have a plan that could accomplish this with existing technology, while Gore advocates new research to reduce costs. A study by the European Renewable Energy Council states that the burning of fossil fuels for energy could be eliminated globally by 2090 using existing technology, and earlier for western nations.
Dependence on foreign fuels
Pickens estimates that his plan would cut oil imports by 38 percent. Patricia Monahan, deputy director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists thinks differently. She questions the wisdom of trying to replace large amounts of imported oil with another fossil fuel, especially considering that the United States already has to import 19 percent of the natural gas it uses.[ The US has been steadily increasing its imports of natural gas since 1985 (see figure to the left), mainly from Canada.
According to Jerry Taylor, senior fellow at the ]Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
, is that "foreign oil is not bad; it is good." The US is now importing about 70% of its oil needs annually because it is cheaper than other forms of energy. Taylor says that if compressed natural gas is the best option for transportation fuel then "the markets will see it," and over time CNG could outperform gasoline as a cheaper transportation fuel.[
]
Questions over Pickens' motives and methods
Many critics of the Pickens Plan highlight ways that Pickens could potentially benefit personally from the plan. For instance, Pickens owns the water rights to a huge ancient aquifer in the Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...
and overall owns more water than anyone else in the U.S. Increasing water demands and drought may make cities in the Great Plains willing to purchase water at high prices. Implementing Pickens Plan would give him rights to build electric transmission lines, and by getting a wider right of way it would allow Pickens to build water pipelines.
A similar strategy was attempted in Texas, where Pickens is building a wind farm that will bring electricity to Dallas, Texas. The proposed pipeline would have followed the same corridor as the electric transmission lines from the wind farms, which was to be seized for utility use from private owners through eminent domain. Many Texas landowners and legislators denounced the plan, particularly the fact that it allowed eminent domain to be exercised by an agency consisting only of T. Boone Pickens's employees.
In September 2008, the water pipeline was suspended. T. Boone Pickens continues to purchase water rights in the Great Plains and has plans to build more, smaller wind farms.
T. Boone Pickens would be in an excellent position to benefit financially if the plan is implemented. His hedge fund, BP Capital, is highly invested in wind and natural gas enterprises.
He is the majority stockholder of Clean Energy, the largest supplier of natural gas for vehicles in the United States.
In rebuttal to many critics' opposition, Pickens insists his interest is more in the country's future, than his personal wealth.
Possibly as a move against such accusations, Pickens has donated over $700 million to philanthropic causes. In the last few years, he has often been on the ''Chronicle of Philanthropys list of top U.S. philanthropists. Still, there are some who are uneasy about a man who made millions in the oil business advocating clean energy:
Real concerns over natural gas being used for both home heat and vehicle fuel are that they may create shortages every year in the winter months when demand for home heating natural gas skyrockets. Since many American home owners already use natural gas to heat their homes, a huge increase in demand for natural gas as a vehicle fuel combined with the existing huge home heating demand based on harsh winter temperatures, could drive up natural gas prices ever year. This could be especially economically devastating to family budgets during the holiday months when people normally allocate more of their money for holiday shopping. Having to pay more for vehicle fuel and home heat at the same time (because both would be the same product) could have a major economic impact on the nation every year.
Another concern is that the reasoning behind the big immediate push for a natural gas future, is to lock out possible development and implementation of more viable renewable energy sources. If people can be convinced that natural gas is the best possible future, and a large expenditure can be made now for a massive natural gas infrastructure to use natural gas for vehicle fuel, it will be much more difficult to abandon natural gas as a vehicle fuel and move on to newer, less expensive renewable energy sources as they become more viable to use. If renewable fuel sources are allowed to develop before the country can be convinced to move to natural gas, the window of opportunity to addict the country to natural gas may close, and the people associated with the natural gas industry would lose a lot of money now and in the foreseeable future.
The "Pickens Plan" (which many believe is designed to make Pickens himself much more wealthy) is a "non-profit" organization.
Support campaign
In 2008, Pickens announced that he would spend $58 million on a multi-media effort to promote his proposal, through both old media
Old media, or legacy media, are the mass media institutions that dominated prior to the Information Age; particularly print media, film studios, music studios, advertising agencies, radio broadcasting, and television.
Old media institutions ar ...
(such as newspapers and television), and new media (including YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, MySpace, Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, and the creation of a new social network on the Pickens Plan website).
As part of this effort, Pickens appeared on many American news programs and talk shows during 2008, such as ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.
Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the prog ...
'', ''Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'', The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014.
The fourth incarnation of the ...
, Larry King Live
''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly.
Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles s ...
, Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
.
Pickens is aided by his spokesperson Jay Rosser and political ad firm Joe Slade White
Joe Slade White (March 8, 1950 - May 5, 2021) was a Democratic political strategist and media consultant. On April 4, 2014 White was named "National Democratic Strategist of the Year" by the American Association of Political Consultants. White ...
& Co.
To raise political support, Pickens planned to organize supporters by Congressional districts. He also met with the main party candidates for the 2008 United States Presidential election
The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from ...
to discuss his plan. He met with John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
on August 15, 2008, and with Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
on August 17, 2008.[
][
]
In October 2008, Pickens announced that the one millionth person had signed up to support his plan, and that two U.S. Senators, 37 U.S. Congressmen and nine governors had pledged "to enact an energy plan that reduces our foreign oil dependence by at least 30% within ten years."
A year later, another 600,000 people had signed up to support the plan.
Major endorsements
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
, has expressed support for the Pickens Plan and stated, “To put it plainly, T. Boone Pickens is out to save America”.
Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff and current President of the Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive officer ...
John Podesta
John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American political consultant who has served as Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden for clean energy innovation and implementation since September 2022. Podesta previously served as White ...
supports the plan.
Barack Obama has stated he supports many elements of the plan.
The American Lung Association
The American Lung Association is a voluntary health organization whose mission is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research.
History
The organization was founded in 1904 to figh ...
endorses the Pickens Plan.
Former Republican Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford
Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford Jr. (born May 28, 1960) is an American politician and author who served as the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2013 to 2019, and also as the ...
supports the Pickens Plan.
See also
* Compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...
* Electricity generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility, utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its Electricity delivery, delivery (Electric power transmi ...
* Energy in the United States
Energy in the United States came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021 as 36% of the nation's energy originated from petroleum, 32% from natural gas, and 11% from coal. Nuclear power supplied 8% and renewable energy supplied 12%, which includes hydro ...
* List of energy storage projects
This is a list of energy storage power plants worldwide, other than pumped hydro storage.
Many individual energy storage plants augment electrical grids by capturing excess electrical energy during periods of low demand and storing it in oth ...
* Nolan County, Texas
Nolan County is a county located in the west-central region of the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 14,738. Its county seat is Sweetwater. The county was created in 1876 and organized in 1881. It is named for Phi ...
* Pampa Wind Project
* Peak gas
Peak gas is the year in which the maximum global natural gas (fossil gas) production rate will be reached, after which the rate of production will enter its terminal decline. Although demand is peaking in the United States and Europe, it continu ...
* Super grid
* Wind power
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...
* Wind power in Texas
Wind power in Texas, a portion of total energy in Texas, consists of over 150 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 30,000 MW (as of 2020).
* Wind power in the United States
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. From January through December 2021, 379.8 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 9.23% of electricity in the U ...
References
External links
Pickens Plan
by T. Boone Pickens, ''The Huffington Post'', June 8, 2009
First person interview conducted on August 6, 2010 with T. Boone Pickens. Original audio and transcript archived wit
{{Alternative propulsion
Energy policy
Renewable energy in the United States
Wind power in the United States
Political plans in the United States