Beware of T. Boone Pickens
A March 21 letter to the editor by David Gray touted the Pickens Plan as a fine method to wean the nation’s dependency from foreign oil. T. Boone Pickens is a businessman and is using the American tax dollar to fund his next venture.
The Pickens Plan is a boondoggle. It requires the declaration of eminent domain across vast areas of Texas so that a new $4.98 billion electrical grid can be constructed to connect to his wind turbines. Do you believe bluebonnets will be planted under these transmission lines? No.
Water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer by Mr. Pickens’ company in the Panhandle would traverse via a pipeline along the grid route. This aquifer currently provides drinking and irrigation water all across the Great Plains from South Dakota to the Panhandle and is in danger of being depleted.
Pickens also has a natural gas pipeline planned in tandem with the water pipeline. He has spent upward of $50 million on media advertisements to seduce the public into believing this venture serves our best interests.
T. Boone Pickens’ own financial best interests are being served while once again the taxpayer foots the bill.
Pete Micus
Lorena
30 March 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
