Posted by
thekeenobserver on Friday, July 10, 2009 10:55:22 PM
Horrors! Can it be possible? Texas multi-billionaire T. Boone Pickens- falling victim to a "boone"doggle? And worse, one of his own making?
But in any event, Mr. Pickens has now been left holding the bag: 687 giant (30 ft.) wind turbines- each costing a "cool" 2 million apiece.
Everyone recalls the 'folksy" Mr. Pickens from his glorious TV commercial from last fall:
Pickens- ever the optimist- would appear on the screen, touting ..."Windmills will be America's new 'clean energy' answer;" and then the obligatory..."plus reduce our dependency on foreign oil."
But after blowing $1.5 billion of his own money, the Texas T-Bone will no doubt be reducing his dependency on Barack Obama, who seems to have reneged on part of a secret deal.
On paper, Picken's "can't-miss" idea looked uttterly Utopian:
a) construct a giant windfarm in Texas' desolate, windy Panhandle area
b) transmit wind-powered electricity to cities in the central & southern part of the state
c) rake in the profits
But then arose (supposedly) a problem of the "missing link:" How to get electricity from point A - the Panhandle- to point B, the urban areas, where the power was needed.
In talking to the media, Pickens - trying to appear un-perplexed- claimed, "There were technical problems in getting transmission lines built"...and..."I'm putting the project on hold for now."
Hmmm; one wonders: a man like Boone Pickens-- one of America's shrewdest (and most feared) businessman- stymied by a 1.5 billion dollar mistake, and then giving up-- just like that?
This raises more than a few eyebrows.
Hath the once-visionary Pickens lost his God-given foresight?
But the one thing that killed the deal of course, was the money-- the amount of new transmission lines needed would have cost the Obama gang $60 billion-- the bulk of which would be generated by the passage of cap 'n trade.
But then, just like any perfect plan, it blew up in a rapid, unexpected series of calamities:
1) crude oil prices dropped much lower
2) a huge natural gas stike in the West dropped overall energy prices even further
3) enviro-terrorists had declared..."there will be NO new transmission lines for anyone."
4) someone forgot the Panhandle is prime tornado country.
But the real giveaway was the timing of Picken's public announcement; after 11 months, why would Pickens suddenly be shelving the once-promising deal?
This time, blame it on the polls.
Obama’s poll numbers suddenly eroded, and the economy-threatening, cap-and-trade mess then hit an unexpected road block in the Senate -ergo, Pickens' surprise announcement.
Unless the economy suddenly lurches back to life, either T. Boone must build the world's largest garage, or he'll have an unwieldy herd of white elephants (windmills) to "feed and care for"...possibly forever.
Poor T. Boone - he's made his worst businesss mistake ever; and Obama probably didn't even offer him a tax deduction.
Pickens might as well have given the $1.5 billion to charity; at least somebody would have been happy.
But like every newcomer, he would have found out the hard way: it's almost impossible to generate any long tem profit from windpower- it must be heavily subsidized.
And in the short term, wind isn’t likely to replace cheaper, more transportable fossil fuels, which already benefit from 100 years of infrastructure buildout.
The U.S. has approx. 600 years worth of coal. Wouldn't it make more sense to just scrap the stupid windfarms, then harness our own country's fossil fuels in a cleaner manner--and blow off OPEC altogether?
And what about nuclear power? It has ZERO emissions. The states that use nuclear pass on its 40% cheaper generating costs to their local customers.
But Obama's radical environmetalism will never yeild to common sense! The laws of economics can never be repealed.
His neo-Marxist dictatorship -- what vehicles can/must be produced, and how energy can be produced and consumed-- has finally suffered its first big setback; and there will be more to come.
Cap & trade, and the entire left wing environmental agenda, is simply a profiteering and power-grab by the greedy leftists- and scammers like Pickens- who have no vested interest in what's really good for America.