A lot of people are coming on board the alternative energy train and from many different sectors of society. Today one of the largest if not the largest wind farm in the world is being built in Texas by T.Boone Pickens who has spent a large part of his career working in the oil business. A famous American entrepreneur, he is a fairly recent addition to the renewable energy lobby. In July 2008 he launched the Pickens Plan, spending $58 million on the advertisement campaign. As such, the amount in itself is impressive enough. So is the scope and ambition, building wind power on a truly massive scale. How does this add up? Texas and wind power. Oilman and renewables. Well it does not entirely. The majority shareholder of a company slightly ironically called Clean Energy -supplying Natural Gas more than anything else- Pickens is aiming to break an American dependence on oil imports. Today the US imports 70% of what it consumes. A country obsessed with homeland security and independence is strangely dependent. On the Middle East this sometimes seems to be the engine behind his commitment. So even if it remains surprising it is at least rather straightforward.
Should the motives be questioned even when they are likely to lead to what most would agree are beneficial results? Yes. Should they be questioned in this particular case? Probably not. The plan’s proponents aim to put pressure on the Obama administration right from the start and could possibly manage to do so. At the moment, any additional force in favour of green reneweable energy and a lowering of oil dependence must be encouraged and Pickens is definitely a force to be reckoned with. He says:
America is in a hole and it’s getting deeper every day. We import 70 percent of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year – four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil. On January 20, 2009, a new President gets sworn in. If we’re organized, we can convince Congress to make major changes toward cleaner, cheaper and domestic energy resources.
Both governments and businesses have become very keen on showing off their commitments to sustainability. 2009 will provide ample opportunities to show whether they really mean it.
If you want to know more about the Pickens Plan, check it out here.
If you are American and think this is a good idea, join the New Energy Army here.
Leif Ahnland leif ahnland
