Boone Pickins

Anyone see T Boone on RFD tv this morning.If so what did you think about what he had to say about wind and natural gas use to cut our oil dependence?

I did not see it. Boone may be correct. But one thing I know for sure, if he is promoting something, he has a plan to personally profit from it in a big way!

60 Minutes did a story on him last Sunday

<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/23/60minutes/main4541322.shtml">Story Transcript</a>

If you use it, the price will go up.

Yeah, Boone's greedy.

What's the phrase I'm looking for, "Greed is good."

Thing is he at least has a reasonable plan. Not some fairy tales campaign promises (from either side).

It's also a plan that means INVESTMENT. Not investing -- we have far, far too much cash floating around that we don't know what to do with. First it made an internet bubble, then it made a housing bubble, then it ramped up oil prices on speculation.

If you've seen some of the posters here shaking their heads at having to sell tax free, insured municipal bonds at 6% or better when people are buying TAXED Federal bonds at 4.5%...that's money people don't know what the heck to do with it. So they're stuffing it under a mattress by buying treasury notes for ridiculously cheap money.

So let's do more drilling for natural gas. Plus those "methane hydrates" -- if you've read some of the doomsday scenarios from the global warming fanatics that a warming of the ocean could release methane, a much stronger greenhouse gas...that's what they're talking about. Frozen methane at the seafloor -- and there's a lot of off the Carolina coasts, as well as up in the Artic off Alaska.

Let's invest in the steel mills to build the pipelines and towers. Let's invest in factories here in the U.S. building the turbines -- you know Connecticut has some good experience with turbines and power...I can't think it would be hard to convert those machine shops that used build airplane turbines into making wind turbines...they're both big and go round-and-a-round.

Let's invest in technologies here at home -- gas stations that can pump natural gas; home fill stations for those served by city gas utilities; wind power (and also nuclear, geothermal, ocean currents) so that instead of spending $700B a year buying foreign oil most of that money is spent buying domestically produced electricity or natural gas. Money that goes to making good utility company payrolls. Money that goes to fund reinvestments and future purchases from domestic manufacturers building this heavy infrastructure.

Yeah, it's not perfect. Yeah, we know T. Boone's looking after his wallet. Doesn't mean you don't go and buy a truck because the you know that dealership is out to make a buck -- it means you negotiate tough with them and reach a deal you're both happy with.

Picken's Plan is the only fairly specific and comprehensive plan I've seen that actually has specific, achievable, tangible goals..

Or we can be a bunch of wusses, go through on a sweater, check our tire pressure, and wonder why our economy continues to go into the crapper despite the best efforts of socialists in Washington.

I don't know. He may be greedy,BUT at least he's pushin for alternatives and that's more than the government has done for the last 30 years. Listening to car commercials last night, they were so proud that their vehicles got 29mpg! The used Dodge Omni I drove in 1979 was gettin 28.........they've only been able to add a mile in29 years?!?

Profit is not a bad thing. It makes everything go round. It's not fun to work your tail off all year farming then at years end find out you had to spend more than you took in. I have had those years. If he has a plan to make those Arabs eat sand and make a buck in the deal, more power to him.


Gene

I drove from Dallas to Lubbock last year. When I turned North just West of Abilene, me and the family were amazed by the 100's and 100's of wind turbines. If you remember watching a cartoon call Road Runner (beep beep) this is the countryside setting and the turbines are on top of the bluffs catching the accelerated winds. These aren't your run of the mill turbines either. The towers are probably 300ft-400ft, and the wing span has got to be a good 150ft. We see the trucks pulling parts out of Dallas frequently. The loads are oversized with flatbed trailers that are probably 80ft long just to haul one blade. Whatever he's up to, he's been up to for a long time, and he's just now doing some public relations. My guess is that each one of these probably cost several million bucks....

Natural gas for cars won't work now and for some time to come. In his scenario we could reduce our dependency on oil by XXXX, can't remember amount but it was a bunch. Right now we are using all the NG we are producing, just like oil and yes just like we were corn. Sooo ethanol became the thing and more corn was planted, but not enough. (It would be impossible to raise enough corn to save much oil)Then corn was in short supply and it causes many things to go up because of corn price. Now, again ethanol isn't the thing and looks like corn is going down. What I'm trying to say is if we run cars off natural gas we will have to drill, drill, drill and then we don't have the distribution, or cars ready or place to compress and sell that huge amount. It will cost billions just to do that. Why not drill,drill, drill for oil. At least we have distribution, a way to sell and cars that can use it NOW, not some time later. Just think of the jobs created here producing that oil. The politicians are fusing about sending jobs over seas. Me too. Why are they wanting to keep sending these oil producing jobs over seas? I don't and at least I am consistent. Think about all the energy wasted just getting that foreign oil here. That alone could run a few cars. Have any of you heard what they are paying land owners to put a windmill on their land? Ridiculous. You have heard about neighboring land owners getting royalties because some of that oil might be seeping from their property. Wait till the lawyers get to trying to figure who gets a piece of the pie because that wind came across some ones property before theirs.

He also said 20,000 a year for each turbine to the person that owns the ground it sets on. Bernie Steffen

Pickens is making a 15-25% return on his money from TAX CREDITS. Our money. His fortune on natural gas will be increased by the gas fired plants that backup wind generation. Wind comes and goes to quickly and after the grid is saturated can not be backed up with slow, inexpensive sources. Generation will increase the demand for natural gas. Research it a little and se what he wants to use the Texas right of way for. Selling your water out from under your feet?He is not looking out for anyone but himself and will twist the truth and laws any way he can to make another dollar. After he dies his company will go on. Their motivation is MONEY without ETHICS.All of these things can be checked on the EIA website.

I know he has said that he doesn't like to look at wind turbines so he won't put them on his land where they would disturb his view. Another billionaire that is too good for what he wants for other people.

Some of his ideas are fine, he is a problem.

Kennedy doesn't want wind turbines off Marthas Vineyard because they will ruin the view when he is boating. Same sort of thing.

Great! as long as he is NOT involved! I do not trust him as far as I can throw my 966, and that is not very far!!! He all but ruined West Texas State University @ Canyon Texas that is 10 miles S of Amarillo TX. Will try to pump the Ogalla Aquafier dry, in an attempt to sell water to San Antonio. Has established a 2 person town, (his wife and and a trusted employee) will try to use Emminant Domain laws to push his wind farms and transmission lines then piggy back water pipe lines in the same R.O.Ws. Ya'll better Wake up!!! Alternatives are good but not with T. Boone Pickins involved.
Later,
John A.
PS He swore he loved Amarillo, but up and moves Mesa Petrolium to Dallas. Left Amarillo holding the bag. They do not have a lot of good to say about him, Best grab hold of your wallet and hold on tight. You have been Officaly Warned.

What would Jesse Jackson have to say about this?

One thing is the reason corn was messed up was because of speculaters using oil on the futures market,so you cant say that really was the reason for the drastic rise in the price of corn.Its way more complicated than that.Look,every country has something that is a measure of their wealth,gold,diamonds,coal,its a long list,America has crops of wheat,corn,beans,lots of other food.We supply places like Saudi Arabia and other places with most of their food.For many years the buyers always said there was a big surplus of corn,and kept the price low.Even 3 years ago corn was still 2 dollars a bushel.Ethanol did not just begin over night,its been around since the late 70s.Its a big bunch of hype that corn being used for ethanol caused the price to go up.Speculaters on the price of oil caused it.

Now natural gas for cars to replace imported oil?Anything that replaces imported oil helps.

Basically government seems to want you to be dumb enough to believe all is hopeless,then some politician with a "plan"will come along and "fix"the problem.Hmmm,imported oil wrecking the economy you say?I give you natural gas to burn in your car,and thats going to keep the boogyman away.Yeah right!I know its not a politicians idea,just wait,it will be if they get enough bribes to go through with it.

Our crops are like a big portion of our spending money to the country.In the real world unless it causes a shortage,which it hasnt,there is no reason for it to raise the price of corn so much for using it for ethanol since we already were doing it anyway and more acres were planted just for ethanol.Its hype to try and hurt ethanol since its competing with oil would be my guess.Somebody has been lying all along to keep the price down,all of a sudden it jumps up,lies are told as the truth,next thing the price of everything goes up.Its all manipulation.If there still is a NFO or some kind of farmers union,they should be telling the truth about whats going on.Since there is nothing to keep them honest,the crooks are having a real good time manipulating the market and making a fortune on paper,while us poor working folk are lied to and robbed and abused.
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Ain't he kind of like Ol' Teddy Kennedy??? "Get them wind turbines goin' but not in my back yard!"

no we are not useing it all!!! gas companies in west pa are plugging old wells, because they don't want the liabilities. must be cheaper to buy it in mexico.

There was hype to raise the price of corn. The flooding and rains in the central heartland. Probably less than 1/2-1% of the US output was probably affected but all you heard from the news was the corn shortage.
I think you're right about manupulation, like in the 70s w/ the sugar shortage. The supposed shortage went away but not all the prices of the items that were jacked up.

Yes we need to drill more in the US. How much do we have though? We consume something like 25% of oil globally produced. Can we get that percentage out of the places we aren't drilling?