Bless him!! This is heartening. It takes one to prime the pump. Thanks for sending......Dale
On 4/15/08, Eric Banford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/14/windpower.energy > > T Boone Pickens is famousfor thinking big. He founded his Texan oil company, > Mesa Petroleum, in1956 with just $2,500 (£1,200) in the bank. After a string > of audacioustakeovers he turned it into an independent empire that challenged > thebig oil companies, and today he is worth $3bn. > > Now thisstraight-talking Southerner is launching the biggest and most > audaciousproject of his career. This month he will make the first down > paymenton 500 wind turbines at a cost of $2m each. The order is the > firstmaterial step towards his goal of building the world's largest windfarm. > > Over the next four years he intends to erect 2,700turbines across 200,000 > acres of the Texan panhandle. The scheme isfive times bigger than the world's > current record-holding wind farm andwhen finished will supply 4,000 megawatts > of electricity - enough topower about one million homes. > > Beyond the mere profitmotive, which clearly excites him, there is the fact > that Texan oil hasbeen on the wane since it peaked at 10m barrels a day in > 1973, and isalready down to half that amount. "Oil fields have a declining > curve -you find one, it peaks and starts downhill, you've got to find > anotherone to replace it. It drives you crazy! With wind, there's no decline." > > "GeorgeBush has done nothing. Nothing. Every guy that ran for president > clearback to Nixon said he would make us energy independent, but not > onegoddamned thing has been done. Zero. The biggest problem facing theUnited > States in the next 50 years is energy and nobody has come upwith a solution." > > Pickens, being Pickens, has come up with asolution - and it makes his own > gargantuan plans for a wind farm in thepanhandle look tiny. For the benefit > of the Guardian, he draws on awhite board his master scheme. He carves out an > enormous corridor ofland running north to south through the middle of the US > - along thegreat plains - where he would build an army of wind farms. Then > hedraws an equally enormous corridor running east to west from Texas > tosouthern California which he would similarly dedicate to solar energy. > > "Youneed a giant plan for America. Not the pissant 83 megawatt > [windfarm]deals being stamped all over the country. There needs to be a huge > planfrom someone with leadership. It's going to take years to do, but ithas > to start now." > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Be a better friend, newshound, and > know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. > http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
