Pickens' energy plan is bold but it won't work COMMENTARY

Pickens' plan is bold — too bad it won't work

Billionaireoilman Boone Pickens supports building wind farms across nation. Billionaireoilman Boone Pickens supports building wind farms across nation. Photo: FRANK FRANKLIN II, ASSOCIATED PRESS Photo: FRANK FRANKLIN II, ASSOCIATED PRESS Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pickens' energy plan is bold but it won't work 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The Pickens Plan isn't the boon for energy independence that it purports to be.

Dallas billionaire investor and oilman-turned-wind-farmer Boone Pickens on Tuesday unveiled an audacious plan that he hopes will prod policymakers into a more realistic discussion of energy issues.

It calls for, among other things, spending $1 trillion to build wind farms from the Texas Panhandle to the Canadian border that he says would meet 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs.

With the generation from those turbine fields, we could shift natural gas that's used for generating electricity to powering cars and trucks. That would reduce our oil imports by 38 percent, Pickens claims.

The plan is riddled with potential pitfalls, but fed by a $50 million media campaign, that may not matter. At a time when presidential candidates and lawmakers eschew meaningful discussion of our mounting energy problems, Pickens' plan is stirring it up.

His Web site, www.pickensplan.com, has generated "phenomenal" traffic and already inspired at least one supporter-led meeting at an Applebee's in Georgia that attracted dozens of people, said spokesman Jay Rosser.

"My point is, I haven't seen a plan in 40-plus years that's going to solve the problem I'm talking about," Pickens told me.

The proposal is typical Pickens, who's known for bold predictions and grandiose proposals. His plan for a billion-dollar water pipeline from the Texas Panhandle early in the decade still doesn't have any takers.

With prices soaring and America importing 70 percent of its oil, something has to be done, he argued.

"Oil now is going to look cheap in a few years, " he said. "We need to get ahold of the situation ourselves."

It's hard to grasp, though, how parts of the plan would be implemented. Assuming all the rights to millions of acres could be acquired and the wind farms built, there's still the problem of wind itself. It doesn't always blow.

A recent study by Cambridge Energy Research Associates found that wind power is least available between June and September, the peak months for electricity consumption.

When the turbines are becalmed, we'll need other power plants — primarily gas-fired ones, which can be started more quickly than other types of generation — to meet demand.

What's more, someone has to pay for building transmission lines to carry the power from the prairies. Guess who? In Texas, the cost of new transmission lines is born by consumers, not the generators.

Pickens argued that wind technology will improve as more farms are built, and as commodity prices rise, it will become a cost-effective power source.

"As it moves in, the natural gas will move out," he said. "The price of natural gas will still be better for vehicles and still be cheaper than foreign oil."

Pickens has championed natural gas vehicles since he converted his Cadillac and drove around Dallas in the early 1990s, but it's unlikely average drivers would do the same.

Thousands of service stations would have to spend millions to install new pumps and storage facilities.

Why don't we just switch to plug-in hybrids, which automakers say they already have in development? We already have the infrastructure we need in our wall sockets.

Then the natural gas generation already in place could still be used and we'd decrease our foreign oil dependency at the same time. Wind could still be used to augment generation as it becomes more viable.

Pickens is quick to acknowledge that his plan isn't the only solution.

"If there's a better one, get it out there and let's talk about it," he said.

His plan follows his own businesses. His Mesa Power is pouring about $12 billion into what would be the world's largest wind farm near Pampa, Texas. He's on the board of the country's biggest provider of natural gas for vehicles, and his hedge fund company, BP Capital, with some $4 billion under management, has bet heavily on natural gas producers.

Depending on your view, that either makes his plan self-serving or shows he's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

I don't begrudge Pickens his profits. He's a successful businessman, and if he gets richer from solving America's energy problems, so be it.

He wanted to get the country talking, and in that, he's succeeded. His plan favors alternative fuels that would be better for the environment and lessen our dependency on foreign oil.

As such, it's a good starting point for discussion and broadening the public understanding of the problems — even if doesn't work.

loren.steffy@chron.com