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T. Boone Pickens Comes to Lincoln
Aug. 21st, 2008 10:11 amOklahoma oilman T. Boone Pickens was half hour later than his original time of arrival but maybe that was by plan. Gives the late comers time to be on time for a change. He worked with no PowerPoint or other stuff. Just a whiteboard for him to doodle on and help him think through his presentation. He's a big Oklahoma State football supporter so he noted as an ice breaker that since NU and OSU are not facing each other on the schedule, he'd root for Nebraska if we'd root for Oklahoma State until they hopefully met in the Big 12 Championship.
The talk he gave on his Pickens Plan basically noted that the US of A is using mass quantities of foreign oil and we should stop that for financial and security reasons. So he wants to take all the natural gas we're using for making electricity and swap that out with wind power. To get that much wind, he wants to put in a huge grid enhancement to allow the often remote resource to be extracted and moved to the big demand areas. This would be in the high wind corridor from Texas north to Canada. He also noted how this was a real economic blessing for rural areas that have been in serious decline for years. His example was Sweetwater, TX which has had a renaissance since wind came to town. Something like 25% of the jobs in that town are wind related and the population has started to grow again.
He's coming at it from a bipartisan basis although he has been very partisan in the past (by helping funding the Swift Boat ads that helped to sink John Kerry in 2004). In fact, I had the impression that this was Ross "The Boss" Perot, Part 2 as it was clear that the ads and the meetings he'd been holding were designed in part to get people politically active and getting a fire started under the otherwise way too passive politicians.
Perot almost single handedly made balancing the federal budget a priority in the campaign and Clinton did a lot to making that happen once he became president. In fact, part of the reason an intern like Monica Lewinsky was even close to the president was because their efforts to keep the White House staff trimmed down. Once W got in, that kind of organizational thriftiness went out the window. Democrats suckered in again to do counterproductive policies.
Cards were handed out to get names and addresses with check boxes for getting mailings or being a more active supporter. An added incentive to fill them out was five gas cards that would be selected from the cards. They said about 1,200 people were there. It was standing room only and the press was there in force. Pickens noted that "60 Minutes" was also reporting on the meeting.
Speaking of politicians, both US Senator wannabes Mike Johanns and Scott Kleeb were both attending. Johanns sat in the front and center row during the presentation. Kleeb stuck around talking to folks after the powwow. Hopefully they both learned something positive from the experience.
In the brief Q&A he was asked about some of the details (like if he supported small wind as well as utility sized wind) and he largely demured on answering those queries saying that he was working with a broad brush (lots of wind and lots of grid to handle the wind) and that the details would be worked out later. Someone asked him about the impact of shifting to more natural gas use on the price of anhydrous fertilizer and Pickens pretty much said that was just the market driving up prices and nothing much could be done about it. Likewise for the price of oil. He scoffed at the speculation arguments about why the price was so high. On nuclear, he said he was okay with new nukes but it would take 10 years to get one running and that was a problem.
( Photos behind the cut . . . )
Local papers reported on it too, of course. I'm the second guy back in red on the middle aisle in the Journal-Star audience photo.
Pickens in Lincoln: Time to Break Oil Dependence - Lincoln Journal-Star - 20 Aug 08
Pickens' Alternative Energy Message Warmly Received - Omaha World Herald - 20 Aug 08
Pickens: I'll Help Obama or McCain on Energy Plan - Sioux City Journal - 20 Aug 08
Texas 0ilman Shares Wind Energy Plan in Lincoln - KHAS-TV - 20 Aug 08 (video here also)
OSU booster Pickens says he'll cheer for Huskers - Sporting News - 20 Aug 08
The talk he gave on his Pickens Plan basically noted that the US of A is using mass quantities of foreign oil and we should stop that for financial and security reasons. So he wants to take all the natural gas we're using for making electricity and swap that out with wind power. To get that much wind, he wants to put in a huge grid enhancement to allow the often remote resource to be extracted and moved to the big demand areas. This would be in the high wind corridor from Texas north to Canada. He also noted how this was a real economic blessing for rural areas that have been in serious decline for years. His example was Sweetwater, TX which has had a renaissance since wind came to town. Something like 25% of the jobs in that town are wind related and the population has started to grow again.
He's coming at it from a bipartisan basis although he has been very partisan in the past (by helping funding the Swift Boat ads that helped to sink John Kerry in 2004). In fact, I had the impression that this was Ross "The Boss" Perot, Part 2 as it was clear that the ads and the meetings he'd been holding were designed in part to get people politically active and getting a fire started under the otherwise way too passive politicians.
Perot almost single handedly made balancing the federal budget a priority in the campaign and Clinton did a lot to making that happen once he became president. In fact, part of the reason an intern like Monica Lewinsky was even close to the president was because their efforts to keep the White House staff trimmed down. Once W got in, that kind of organizational thriftiness went out the window. Democrats suckered in again to do counterproductive policies.
Cards were handed out to get names and addresses with check boxes for getting mailings or being a more active supporter. An added incentive to fill them out was five gas cards that would be selected from the cards. They said about 1,200 people were there. It was standing room only and the press was there in force. Pickens noted that "60 Minutes" was also reporting on the meeting.
Speaking of politicians, both US Senator wannabes Mike Johanns and Scott Kleeb were both attending. Johanns sat in the front and center row during the presentation. Kleeb stuck around talking to folks after the powwow. Hopefully they both learned something positive from the experience.
In the brief Q&A he was asked about some of the details (like if he supported small wind as well as utility sized wind) and he largely demured on answering those queries saying that he was working with a broad brush (lots of wind and lots of grid to handle the wind) and that the details would be worked out later. Someone asked him about the impact of shifting to more natural gas use on the price of anhydrous fertilizer and Pickens pretty much said that was just the market driving up prices and nothing much could be done about it. Likewise for the price of oil. He scoffed at the speculation arguments about why the price was so high. On nuclear, he said he was okay with new nukes but it would take 10 years to get one running and that was a problem.
( Photos behind the cut . . . )
Local papers reported on it too, of course. I'm the second guy back in red on the middle aisle in the Journal-Star audience photo.
Pickens in Lincoln: Time to Break Oil Dependence - Lincoln Journal-Star - 20 Aug 08
Pickens' Alternative Energy Message Warmly Received - Omaha World Herald - 20 Aug 08
Pickens: I'll Help Obama or McCain on Energy Plan - Sioux City Journal - 20 Aug 08
Texas 0ilman Shares Wind Energy Plan in Lincoln - KHAS-TV - 20 Aug 08 (video here also)
OSU booster Pickens says he'll cheer for Huskers - Sporting News - 20 Aug 08
