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Picken's Plan

garymunson-2008

15 years ago

Anyone else studied T. Boone Picken's idea to get us off foreign oil?

Comments (5)

western_pa_luann
15 years ago
I thought he was just speaking in generalities...

What are the specifics of his plan?
lakelifer
15 years ago
Of course, the plan is going to be beneficial to his investments.

The goal is good but I don't think the means are necessarily feasible. I think it will take a mix of EVs and NGVs (as opposed to only NGVs) to effectively work over a shorter time frame.

Even assuming not questioning about potential reserves the problem is there is an insufficient amount of current infrastructure and qualified personnel to add capacity in such a scale on the North American continent in a short period of time and we would still likely end up importing NG to meet demand and if this happens I think there would then likely be also a shortage of ships that can transport the NG. At least natural gas worldwide is still an abundant fuel and cheaper in terms of energy content than oil.

I see nothing wrong with using wind energy or energy from currents/tides. Its at a point where it doesn't need subsidies. There is also a solar design that will be used in Australia using rising heat and towers that I like but using photovoltaics unfortunately don't merit the costs. I also think we should look into energy generation from existing low head dams that currently generate nothing.
I also think its likely feasible now to look into superconduction to transmit electricity.
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garymunson-2008
Original Author
15 years ago
Check out www.pickensplan.com
dchall_san_antonio
15 years ago
Pickens' plan will start us on domestic natural gas until we can get enough wind power plants built. Eventually he foresees a mix of wind, natural gas, and domestic oil. If we don't do something different ASAP, according to Pickens, all of our money will go to foreign oil producers.

The largest wind farm in the world is south of Sweetwater, TX. The second largest wind farm in the world is adjacent to the largest one outside of Sweetwater. I used to drive through it and it is an amazing sight to see, especially at night with all the red flashing lights. The windmills disappear over the horizon. Pickens proposes to install a new largest wind farm north of Pampa, TX. I have been living in Pampa for a year and can tell you that the average wind speed is 15 to 20 mph here every day and night except for the hottest days of summer.

I work in the oil and gas industry. Unless we are allowed to drill domestically where the oil and gas are, we will continue to send money overseas. Doesn't make sense to me.
rileysmom17
15 years ago
Dear dchall,

I worked at Texas Tech in Lubbock for 10 years, a pre-eminent facility for wind research as I'm sure you know. Also a preminent locale for wind.

As someone inside the industry, how do you feel you are doing in terms of reducing your environmental footprint? I read something in The Economist (?) a few years ago about a Shell plant in some tropical place and the writer was blown away by how environmentally invisible it was; they even had a narrow road for access that was designed to allow marsupials to cross it, and birds to fly over it etc. I also heard a quote that for Alaskan drilling "we could make it happen with less than 2 seals being killed" or words to that effect. What's reality?

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