Move over Al Gore, T. Boone Pickens is the new face of clean energy
T. Boone Pickens has quickly become the leading proponent for wide-scale development of renewable energy. The “Pickens Plan,” which just launched a social website aimed at mobilizing the masses, aims to break America’s dependence on foreign oil by shifting our energy consumption away from fossil fuels and on to renewable sources, primarily wind power and natural gas. The Pickens Plan estimates that building wind facilities along the high wind corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota would cost $1 trillion, plus another $200 billion in transmission infrastructure. The wind energy that would be harnessed from this project could replace 20% of that used by our entire country. This, coupled with the fact that we spend $700 billion each year to purchase foreign oil, actually makes the price tag look pretty reasonable.
One of the criticisms we previously leveled at Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth was that it was a little bit of “preaching to the converted.” Many people that received Gore’s message so favorably were political liberals that were already predisposed to his policies. Political conservatives often disregarded or dismissed his message as propaganda, just because they had a different political affiliation. Pickens, a Texas oilman and strong Republican, should have the credibility with political conservatives, that Gore may have lacked, in order to convince them too that the time to act is now.
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