Earth Equity News

How Realistic is Pickens' Plan? By David R. Baker, SFChron, September 1, 2008. "So will [T. Boone Pickens' energy] plan work? Energy analysts say parts of it seem plausible, other parts don't and the timetable is probably unrealistic. It also would substitute one expensive fossil fuel for another... Pickens wants to generate at least 20% of the nation's electricity from windmills, replacing electricity from traditional power plants that run on natural gas... [and taking] the natural gas that would have been burned in those plants... to fuel trucks and cars instead. That would cut U.S. oil imports by one-third, he estimates, saving the country about $230 billion annually. And he wants to do all this in roughly 10 years... Energy analysts say the country could eventually get 20% of its power from the wind, but probably not in 10 years. A U.S. [DOE] study earlier this year found that the country could reach that figure by 2030 -- with effort... Hundreds of thousands of windmills would need to be installed throughout the country's plains... [and] new transmission lines... would be needed... The price alone is daunting... Also complicating matters: Proposed wind farms and transmission lines often run into fierce opposition from neighboring communities, making quick construction unlikely... 'It's not particularly realistic,' said Patricia Monahan... of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists." Editor's note: "Realistic" or not, CCC believes that 20% our electricity from wind power by 2018 is a worthy goal.