2008-08-12
Pickens: Green Wildcatter, Yes, but Tree-hugger, No. By Karen Beslau, Newsweek, August 9, 2008. "With blunt talk -- and an estimated $3 billion fortune to back it up with action -- [T. Boone] Pickens, who last made headlines for funding the Swift Boat attack ads against John Kerry in 2004, has put himself back in the spotlight in time for the 2008 election. It's an audacious act of rebranding... [But] just don't mistake Pickens for a tree-hugger... [He] favors drilling offshore and in Alaska, and more nuclear energy if it will mean importing less oil. 'I'm pro-everything,' he says... Forget about drowning polar bears and compact fluorescent light bulbs; Pickens is peddling pure old star-spangled self-interest. His ads feature grainy images of burning oil fields and U.S. soldiers standing watch in the desert... What's in it for Pickens? He is investing $10 billion to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle. Through another venture, Clean Energy Fuels, he is the country's largest private owner of natural gas fueling stations. If demand for these sources soars, as his plan envisions, he is positioned to win big... 'I want him to make more money in wind than he did in oil,' says the Sierra Club's [Carl] Pope. 'It has a huge impact on the conversation.'"
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