Legendary Oil Man T Boone Pickens Promotes Wind Energy

He made his fortune in oil, but energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens has nowembarked on a national public relations campaign to move the countryaway from oil and towards a renewable energy future. But, as VOA's GregFlakus reports from Houston, many energy experts are skeptical abouthis proposals.

In a video message broadcast on television andthe Internet, T. Boone Pickens is warning the people of the UnitedStates about the looming energy crisis the country faces.

"We donot need any more talk," he said. "We need action and we need a planand it has got to be the top priority of the next president and thenext Congress. I am T. Boone Pickens. I have been an oil man my wholelife, but this is one emergency we cannot drill our way out of."

Inhis campaign, Pickens says that the United States is sending some $700billion a year to overseas oil producers because U.S. production hasfallen far behind domestic demand. In lectures he has posted online,Pickens explains how oil use could be diminished by switching 22percent of electrical generation from natural gas-driven generators towind generators and then using the natural gas for transportation.

"Weare going to take this 22 percent and we are going to get it out ofpower generation, because we are going to get 22 percent from wind andmove the natural gas out," he explained. "We know it works fortransportation fuel, [there are] eight million vehicles in the worldoperating on natural gas right now."

Pickens says this wouldoffset 38 percent of the petroleum the United States is now importingand, at current prices, save the nation $300 billion a year.

ButPickens has ruffled many of his colleagues in the oil industry bysuggesting that searching for more oil here at home is not part of theanswer. Brian Kennedy of the Institute for Energy Research saysPickens went too far when he disparaged the idea of more domesticdrilling.

"I think it is a misleading sound bite, frankly.What we need to do is increase the production of all forms ofeconomically viable energy that we have in this country," he said. "Drilling is certainly a massive part of that."

Kennedy supportsPresident Bush's call for more exploration and development off U.S.coasts in areas that Congress has placed off limits. He says thecountry will need that oil in the years ahead, because alternativeenergies are unlikely to fill the gap.

"We are going to be aneconomy that is petrochemical based for the foreseeable future," headded. "To pretend that we are not, while it may make some people feelgood, is going to be very hurtful to our economy and our consumers."

Kennedynotes that renewable fuels make up only about six percent of energysupply in the United States now in spite of decades of investment andresearch. He notes that each energy source has its own problems. Forexample, the wind power Pickens touts is dependent on the wind blowingall the time and the areas where the wind blows the most tend to be farfrom the urban centers where the electrical power is needed.

Pickenshas invested his own money in a $10-billion project to create theworld's largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle. He says he will buildthe transmission lines to get that power to the Dallas-Fort Worthmetropolitan area if state officials fail to provide the properinfrastructure. Pickens estimates that he will be able to light300,000 homes with the power generated by his wind turbines.

ThePickens plan to shift vehicles from petroleum to natural gas facescriticism as well. Automakers have failed to embrace the idea in spiteof numerous attempts by Pickens to convince them. Natural gas is alsoa limited resource, according to Gal Luft, director of the Institutefor the Analysis of Global Security.

"It is not really clear tome where is the strategic benefit from shifting millions and millionsof cars from one resource to another when both resources are soproblematic," he said.

Luft says using natural gas to powervehicles would soon lead back to heavy reliance on imports. He says abetter strategy would involve moving away from dependence on fossilfuels by promoting a wide variety of alternatives.

"Let's openthe market and allow several sources of energy to compete against eachother. Once you have this competition, once you have cars that are, infact, platforms in which fuels can compete, the market will sort itselfout in a way that those that make economic sense will prevail and,hopefully, it will be energy resources we can develop domestically," heexplained.

Energy has emerged as a hot topic in this year'spresidential election. T. Boone Pickens, for one, would like an evenstronger focus on the issue. He plans to meet with officials inWashington to promote his plan and he is relying on his ad campaign tobuild public support behind him.