The rumors are true: Pickens to place wind projects on hold

Articles — By forcechange on November 12, 2008 11:03 am

Apparently the rumors that Pickens was preparing to put his plans to build the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle on hold are true.  Pickens says that wind energy is not a competitive investment in the present market, since natural gas is a direct competitor to wind energy, and the price of it has fallen dramatically over recent months. 

As a result, Pickens has decided to put his massive planned wind farm on hold until energy prices rebound.  This comes on the heels of his decision to halt work on a plan to build new transmission lines that would have linked his wind farm with Texas population centers.

Unfortunately, it appears to be very difficult to make progress on developing alternative energy sources when the pain of our oil dependency is not being felt in an immediate sense.  Even though most experts predict a future oil spike that could rival the recent one, it is still difficult for us to make fundamental changes in behavior absent any immediate pain.  It seems that absent any real political leadership, we may have to wait for the next round of financial or geopolitical suffering before we are able to make real change.

Hat-tip: Green Inc.

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