Pickens Plan - My Thoughts

In a packed room the first "town hall" meeting of T. Boone Pickens convened. The building was so packed, that they were literally turning people away at the door. One friend of mine, who only got in, because of her press pass, told me that there was a guy next to her, from Kansas City, that was turned away at the door, as she was let in.

It wasn't all bad though, they hastily set up speakers on the patio in the back of the building, to allow people to hear the meeting while gathered around the gazebo.

When the meeting got started the ranking Democrat on the state's energy Committee introduce Queen Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who in turn introduced T. Boone Pickens. In her monologue she mentioned that we didn't have enough transmission lines (in Kansas) to carry the energy produced by wind.

Sebelius said the most compelling element of Pickens' strategy was rapid development of wind power in Kansas and elsewhere. She said 10 percent of Kansas' energy needs would be met by wind at the end of the year by eight wind farms and a goal of 20 percent by 2020 would be attained with the addition of more transmission lines.

What she did not mention was that she stood in the way of getting those transmission lines built (via the Holcomb plant).

Pickens made the point that we were importing $700 billion of oil into this country every year. Paying countries that are not friendly to us, who in turn financially support terrorists (pay ransoms) to not hurt them, their families or their oil productions.

Pickens is forming a national coalition of activists dedicated to advancing his plan for unprecedented investment in wind farming and redirection of natural gas from electric power plants for use as a fuel in diesel- and gasoline-gulping vehicles. His goal is a 38 percent reduction in oil imports and a concurrent $230 billion reduction in the $700 billion annual tab for crude bought from abroad.

"Stick with me," Pickens said. "We are all going to find ourselves in this issue as if it's a war."

His eye is on wind and natural gas but supports development of "anything American" — nuclear, biofuel, solar, hydrogen or oil and gas drilling in coastal areas and federally protected lands — that takes pressure off demand for oil imports.

An idea that I think is very worthy of exploring. As Pickens pointed out, we have oil in this country that we could tap and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He said that Homeland Security has concerns with such a large dependence on foreign oil. That is because it makes us vulnerable. It wouldn't take much to cripple our country, if something were to happen to even 20% of that.

One person in the audience questioned him about water wheels on our nations rivers, like the Missouri, as part of the plan for alternative energy. Boone admitted that he didn't know much about it, but if it worked, it would be given a chance.


Another person who stood to ask a question, was a candidate for the U. S. senate, who asked Boone about Electric hybrid cars. In short, Pickens response that he likes anything American.
---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.

Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!