8-19-08 by dugan
Las Vegas, NV — It’s no surprise that T. Boone Pickens gives essentially the same stump speech at every stop to pitch his "Pickens Plan", which is really a political effort. Pickens didn’t much alter it, even in front of the greener-than-usual "National Clean Energy Summit" today at the University of Las Vegas. Same folksy anecdotes about his advanced age, same metaphor about U.S. energy policy being on the river without a paddle and about to go over Niagara Falls.
Pickens’ Texas charm gets applause, but his first big idea for U.S. energy independence–development of U.S. shale oil deposits, didn’t. Let’s see–energy "independence" at a terrible environmental cost, basically ripping the earth off of hundreds of thousands of acres, and sucking away much of the West’s water. Last night, former President Bill Clinton did a whole lot better with a vision of renewables and conservation.
The core of the Pickens Plan, however, is massive wind power development for electric power, and using the saved natural gas for vehicles. That got a little warmer reception. One thing he made more explicit today was that the natural gas should power big truck fleets, and he’s "not so interested in your car." If that’s the case, what is Pickens up to in California? His Proposition 10 on the state’s Nov. ballot would, at taxpayer expense, lavish $10,000 tax credits on a two-year lease of a passenger vehicle, and more than twice that on a large SUV or pickup trucks (In addition to forking over $50,000 for large trucks).
Why couldn’t Pickens, whose company is in the natural gas fuel business, be honest about what he wants those tax dollars for? And why would he offer huge passenger car credits that would damage the market for hybrids? Pickens himself acknowledges the impracticality of passenger natural gas vehicles on a large scale. Why pick Californians’ pickets to pay for them?
The next speaker, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, made first and foremost a plea for Congress to extend long-term, federal tax credits for renewable energy. Practical, to the point and devoid of complicated self-interest. Pickens was funnier, but Napolitano got to the right point, right away.