From Slashdot:
In 2008, billionaire T. Boone Pickens unveiled his ‘Pickens Plan’ on national TV, which calls for America to end its dependence on foreign oil by increasing use of wind power and natural gas. Over the next two years, he spent $80 million on TV commercials and $2 billion on General Electric wind turbines.
Unfortunately market forces were not favorable to Mr. Pickens, and in December 2010 he announced that he is getting out of the wind power business. What does he plan to do with his $2 billion worth of idle wind turbines? He is trying to sell them to Canada, because of Canadian law that mandates consumers to buy more renewable electricity regardless of cost.
On his website he says this about 2011-
We’re not going away. If I’ve learned anything during the many years of my business career it is this: No one has ever accomplished his or her goal by quitting or failing to meet and overcome a challenge. You reach your goal by hitching up your pants and wading back into the fight.
That’s what I’m going to do in 2011. And I know you’ll be with me.
Likely the market forces will have a say.
Here’s a video of his plan in better days-
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This is why AGW is so hard to pull down. The theory is weak yet it has many industialists involved for the sole purpose of making a financial killing. Even the oil companies have come on board hoping to make billions from a naive and frightened public. Politicians see more power and taxes. Greens see a magic bullet (co2) curing many of their environmental concerns.
In years to come people need to be tried in court and locked away for a very long time.
Three words: impending Spanish insolvency.
Thanks in part to “green” subsidies. And they bang on about sustainability.
Take note, Pickens, or change your name to Slim.
Maybe someone should tell him about thorium nuclear plants?
What happens to those massive concrete slabs embedded in the ground when the turbines are taken away?
For the life of me, I don’t get the green left’s fascination with wind power. Having regularly driven out west, particularly in North Dakota, the windmills are a particular eyesore in lands where one can see forever, much worse than the oil rigs. I would assume they have very similar environmental effects as well, with roads needing to be cut, hydraulic oils spilling, etc etc. Here in New York State, the greenies rightfully lead the effort to protect our beautiful ridges from development, including natural gas drilling, yet continue to push for wind and solar initiatives.. I wonder if they have considered how bad the ridges would look covered in 150 meter high turbines.
As for Boone Pickens.. he’s a capitalist true and true. I never believed for a minute he ever was in this for anything but to make money. This is purely a business decision for him. I still believe natural gas is going to grow in use, particularly as it gets colder..
Hoosier is correct in that T. Boone Pickens is still keeping his water rights in Roberts and other counties, even as he abandons wind power. Pickens is a firm believer and practitioner in the art of using S.E. M. – someone else’s money – to accomplish his goals. If he has not found enough outside takers for his wind energy plan, then that’s the end of the plan. He is keeping the water because he plans to sell it down state to San Antonio or elsewhere – provided that the purchaser pay for the pumps, pipeline, rights of way and other assorted costs.
He,he,ho,ho. this is good Christmas present.
“Split Atoms, not Birds”…
There are numerous wind power projects in the State of Washington but I do not seem to find a report on the actual power produced. On clear days I can even see some of the towers of one project but only a few of 100 plus of them. This morning it is not clear so I’ve no idea what is going on.
In searching for info, I found a site that claims to be “A Social Action Network fighting for Energy Independence” and operates under the heading of “Push.PickensPlan.com” —
The site appears to be about 2 years old; had minor action for about a year, and now seems abandoned.
Questions come to mind:
When will the site be taken down and will its bones be around for a long time so that future historians will know about such things?
When subsidies are withdrawn or decreased for wind projects will they be maintained? If not will they be dismantled?
The states that will be most impacted by the Obama-EPA war on coal power plants will require higher priced power. What will that be? Who will pay?
Lots more but it is Christmas morning. Using cheap hydro power from a Columbia River dam I’m going to bake a pecan pie and take it to the neighbors. They have the turkey in the oven.
Merry Christmas!
There’s a sucker born every minute. No doubt T. Boone got what he wanted out of the deal. The suckers are the people that bought into $80 million worth of hype.
When I first saw T. Boone’s TV spots I knew this was a loser for the American Tax-payer. T. Boone wrapping himself in the flag of American “energy independence” while peddling this snake oil was disgusting in the extreme. I saw this coming from a mile away.
Here’s that missing link:
http://push.pickensplan.com/profile/WashingtonStateforSolarandWindPower
Note to Mr. Pickens. I’m on the energy policy advisory committee for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. We are going to kill the Green Energy Act once we get into power in Oct next year. We will do what we have to to stop the FIT program because it is causing power rates to skyrocket, doubling in the past 7 years. Businesses are leaving because it is cheeper to do business elsewhere where power costs are less. So keep your idle wind turbines, we don’t want them.
Wind power isn’t the only alternative energy source on the chopping block.
Taxpayer funded SpectraWatt (a solar cell manufacturer) is shutting down it’s New York plant after less than one year in business. Reason- global COOLING in Europe! Seems there is little demand for solar cells when the skies are gray and cloudy.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a trend…
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20101222/BUSINESS/12220339/Solar-cell-maker-SpectraWatt-plans-shutdown
Merry Christmas, All!
FYI: Analysis on wind in Ontario OntarioWindPerformance.wordpress.com
The wind farm was subsidized icing on dog turd. He was after eminent domain in order to get aquifer water to Dallas. Some handy legislation was passed, or rather buried, in bigger water bills that would allow land condemnation for a water pipeline to run next to windmill powerlines in order to get needed power AND water to far away places in Texas, namely Dallas. The ranchers that were owners of that soon to be condemnable long strip of land weren’t happy.
While he tried to win their cooperation by dancing a carrot, as in letting them in on the “water company”, he failed to ask first. In Texas, you don’t take unless you are willing to stare down a gun barrel pointed at you. Apparently, he flinched?
I’m happy to see the people managed to block Pickens from using government to loot us for this project, but his threat to get government to loot us for another project next year is scary.
WUWT said: “Unfortunately market forces were not favorable to Mr. Pickens, …”
But the article cited says this:
“Two years ago, Pickens placed a $1.5 billion wind turbine order from GE. But the problem: transporting the energy from West Texas to the rest of the state. Pickens planned to build his own transmission, but the approvals fell through,….” http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/22/pm-major-investor-pulls-out-of-wind-power/
So, it was not market forces but government bureaucracy that caused Pickens to back off for now. I would think WUWT readers would be appalled and press the government to give Pickens the green light for his enterprise. (I don’t know if the approval is needed from Texas state government or the federal government – or both.)
It was a scam from start to finish. He needed the right-of-way, once he had it, he created his own water authority. Thank the eco-tards for this one too.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/node/207036
I thought this was the only way to save the country if not the world and now T Boone is quitting, so he is was only interested in making a buck, not in saving the planet, what will you tell me next, there is no Santa Claus?
Merry Christmas Everyone.
I just went out to brush snow off my solar cell. Damn. It was covered in thick bumpy ice under the snow I brushed off. Large or small, wind and solar power is far too sensitive to weather to be of any substantial use in many parts of the country.
By the way, if cities continue to allow development that sucks their available water dry, distant land owners with water rights may end up trying to do exactly what Pickens tried to do, sell the water that just happens to flow under his land. At least at the last minute, his county placed a restriction on folks like him. He could not draw down the aquifer past 50% of its full state.
States and counties probably need to put into place restrictions on the sale of aquifer water in order to prevent drainage to the last drop by people not living in that county. And it has nothing to do with global warming or cooling. It has to do with population growth and development beyond a city’s means to supply sustainable water to its ever expanding belly.
So remember, future taking and sale of water has nothing to do with climate change. It is all about unrestricted population growth in water sucking cities. And you think CO2 control stirs a hornet’s nest.
Amazing.
One can’t help but wonder how much of this story will be covered in MSM. I recall the media going ga-ga when TBP announced his big wind idea. I also remember some time later it being reported that TBP wouldn’t permit any of the windmills on his personal ranch in Texas – too ugly.
Here’s a question: if these windmills are ugly now, what will they look like in 20+ years if indeed, natural gas, nuke, oil and coal will rule the future of energy? Will we look back and ask, “what on earth were we thinking?”
Pickens: proving yet again that America loves an asshole as long as he’s rich.
Count you fingers, indeed.
A Happy Harrop and the best of the season to all.
So the back story has to be about the disruption of his plans for a water pipeline filled with distant aquifer water. The legislation allowing eminent domain for a water pipeline was connected to eminent domain for his wind turbine powerlines. If he isn’t going to build the wind farm, he won’t be able to pipe water on the condemned land that would have been under the power line to Dallas. So who stopped his aquifer pipeline deal, as that was the whole point of the wind farm? Somebody removed the icing on the dog turd.
To add on to what Hoser said, he apparently was having trouble running water lines from Sweetwater to the Dallas area as he would have to buy the land to place the piping on it’s own. But if he could place energy transmission lines from Sweetwater to Dallas, he could bury the water lines at the same time. It wasn’t about the wind power as much as it was the subsidized transmission lines and greater ability to use eminent domain to place his other pipelines in at the same time.
Sam Hall:
December 25, 2010 at 8:07 am
I know, Sam. Count your fingers AND feel for your wallet, too. I remember when he was trying to snooker our gullible Mayor (now former Mayor) of Dallas, Laura Miller, into buying West Texas ground water. He said he’d even build the pipeline! Of course, what he didn’t say was that we had to pay for it. Making the overall cost of the water almost three times as expensive as it would be for us to build a new reservoir.