So, you may or may not have heard of T. Boone Pickens before, but basically he's a former oil man worth $3 billion dollars who is now throwing his weight behind the green energy movement. His plan, aptly named "The Pickens Plan", involves building massive windmill farms in the Midwestern states, effectively supplying 20% of the nation's power, thus freeing up the 22% of power normally derived from natural gas, and using this natural gas to fuel a good portion of our transportation. This way, Pickens claims that we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil by one-third.
Sounds good to me---sign me up! But wait---before we get all carried away, buoyed up on a wave of emotion, let's look at the two main components of his plan: wind and natural gas.
First of all, building all of these windmills and the infrastructure to support them will cost (according to Pickens) an estimated $1+ trillion dollars! Now, that is obviously a lot of money, but wind energy is a renewable resource, so once the parts are in place, it is the gift that will keep on giving.
Natural gas, on the other hand, is ike the much-bedeviled maligned oil, a nonrenewable resource. Granted
natural gas burns much cleaner, and is far more abundant in North America than is oil, but its reserves will eventually run out. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), there are 1,190.62 Trillion Cubic Feet of technically recoverable natural gas in the United States. By "technically recoverable", that means the figure includes natural gas that is "undiscovered, unproved, and unconventional natural gas." So, while that number seems like a lot, not all of it is "technically" there. Also, according to the Oil and Gas Journal, World Natural Gas Reserves by Region as of December of 2006 has the amount of technically recoverable natural gas in the world at 6,183 Trillion Cubic Feet, which leaves the United States with only 3% of the world's store. And guess which region has the most natural gas? Why, it's the Middle East, of course, with our good buddies Russia in close second! So, in the end, won't the United States still be dependent on the Middle East for its transportation fuel? Now also understand, T. Boone Pickens has long been a champion of natural gas as a preferred fuel source because his company, Clean Energy Fuels, Inc., owns and operates many natural gas fueling stations in the West and Midwest and is the nation's largest supplier of natural gas for transportation purposes. Let's just say that Mr. Pickens won't be walking away from this deal empty-handed.
Now, with all of that said, I am still very excited about the prospect of having such an influential man on the green side for once, but I am a bit skeptical of the natural gas angle. While I think natural gas vehicles are a great innovation, and certainly less polluting, how viable is natural gas as a fuel source? By replacing a good amount of oil with natural gas as a transportation fuel, one has to ask how far that will get us? I see this as a very temporary fix, as neither oil nor natural gas will be around forever. In any case, Pickens has already purchased over 600 windmills from General Electric, so I am very optimistic that he already has begun to have a positive impact on our nation's energy crisis.
Recent Comments