The Pickens Plan: Tossing Oil Dependency into the Wind

One of the world’s most outspoken and productive billionaires has never been shy about predicting the price fluctuations of oil and gas. And now he’s not being shy about how he thinks the United States can break their dependency on foreign oil. Pickens certainly knows what he’s talking about when it comes to fossil fuels. He is the main person responsible for forming the energy futures investment strategy of the BP Capital, which manages more than $4 billion in one of the nation’s most successful energy-oriented investment funds.

As most Americans know, our country is addicted to foreign oil suppliers, and this dependency just gets worse each year. Every day about 85 million barrels are produced around the world, and 21 million of those are used in the U.S. So 25% of the world’s oil demand is used by just 4% of the world’s population. There’s obviously a dangerous disparity there. World oil production peaked in 2005, and oil production has fallen steadily over the past three years. Oil drilling and production is getting increasingly expensive, and there isn’t enough oil to keep up with the demand.

In 1970 we imported only 24% of foreign oil, and today that number is nearly 70% and growing. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion out of the country this year to support our foreign oil habit. To put that into perspective, that’s four times the annual cost of the war in Iraq. If this level of consumption continues, then over the next 10 years we will have paid out $10 TRILLION—the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of world.

Now let’s get back to T. Boone Pickens, whose insight into oil production and America’s dangerous dependency has led him to begin making a concerted effort to do something about it. Pickens is spearheading an economic revival for rural America while also trying to break the cycle of dependence on fossil fuel. In the small town of Pampa, Texas, just north of Sweetwater, T. Boone Pickens’ Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world.

The Department of Energy says that 20% of America’s electricity can come from wind, if the government will just take steps to begin pursuing it. Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains states have the greatest wind energy potential in the world. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than 25 years. A 2005 study by Stanford University shows that there is enough wind power in the world to satisfy global electricity demands 7 times over, even if only 20% of that wind power could be harnessed.

Today’s wind turbines currently account for the power that serves more than 4.5 million households, but that’s still only about 1% of current demand. In one year alone, a 3-megawatt wind turbine can produce as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil. So what’s the government waiting for? It would take about $1 trillion to build wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from North Dakota to the Texas panhandle. It would take another $200 billion to build the infrastructure to carry that energy into towns and cities throughout the country. And that sounds like a daunting figure of money. But compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil each year, it’s a bargain.

Developing wind power would revitalize rural America by providing jobs and new economic opportunities. Sweetwater is a good example of such revitalization; the population of under 10,000 has grown to 12,000 since Mesa Power began building the wind farm. In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, workers are needed to manufacture the hardware and blades for the turbines. These are well-paid high-skill jobs comparable to jobs in the aerospace industry. And wind turbines don’t interfere with farming and grazing, so they won’t affect food production. Wind power would be a cheap new replacement for the expensive foreign oil that is draining our economy dry in more ways than one.

T. Boone Pickens is one of the greatest philanthropists in the US, and has contributed millions of dollars to a wide range of worthwhile causes and charities. His foundation is improving lives through grants that support medical research, education, corporate wellness, wildlife, and at-risk youth. And now, he has designed a blueprint for solving a looming crisis for at-risk America. Building new wind generation facilities will be expensive and time-consuming, but the gains far outweigh the means, and it will take only about 10 years to replace more than 1/3 of our foreign oil imports. But the solution has to start at the top—with the government.

The Pickens Plan website lays out the challenge clearly: "On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability."

Go to the Pickens Plan website and click on the link to send a message to President-elect Barack Obama to tell him why you believe it’s important to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.