Peak Oil was reached in 2005. It is now 5 years later and we have done absolutely nothing as a country to address this issue. T. Boone Pickens has been one of the few people sounding the alarm and proposing solutions. He has spent millions of his own money to educate the public. Yes, his business would benefit, but he is an 81 year old billionaire. He'll be dead in the next 10 years. His ideas would benefit the country for decades. Instead we dither and debate more social programs. We'll continue to dither until gas prices reach $5 a gallon. It will be too late. It may already be too late.
Forget Wind. Pickens Turns Focus to Gas.
DALLAS — Arabic script is about to appear on television sets across the country, with the Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens helpfully reading an English translation.
“Go back to sleep, America; the oil crisis is over,” Mr. Pickens intones, deadpan, in the new video. Seductive Middle Eastern music plays in the background.
But suddenly, the picture switches to American troops on a desert battlefield as flames leap skyward, and Mr. Pickens declares, “I don’t think so!”
What, exactly, is he up to now?
The Texas billionaire spent much of the last two years, and $62 million of his fortune, on an advertising and public relations offensive in which he tried to persuade Americans to embrace his Pickens plan. It called for a vast expansion of wind energy to displace natural gas, freeing the natural gas for use in vehicles, thus displacing foreign oil.
No American with a television set could escape Mr. Pickens’s argument last year. But somehow, a mass conversion to natural gas cars failed to ensue.
So now Mr. Pickens is turning up the volume, and changing his pitch with some extra alarm bells. He is opening his wallet to spend millions more on a new campaign, with the first advertisements scheduled to be broadcast Thursday on cable stations across the country.
His aides hope that a stronger message, focused on national security, will be effective after the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing and other terrorist actions. They say they discussed whether using the Arabic lettering might be viewed as incendiary or offensive, but concluded that any added attention would be good for the cause.
“We’re infidels with most of these people and they have no use for us,” the 81-year-old oilman said in an interview on the way to a speech here recently. “We’re getting more and more dependent on the wrong people.”
The Pickens campaign has been suspended since October, when Mr. Pickens decided that health care was drowning out the energy debate. But he says he thinks the energy policy will soon move back to the top of Washington’s agenda.
This time, he has tweaked the Pickens plan in a way that just happens to conform with his changing business interests.
The man who made much of his fortune on oil, then in recent years turned to wind power, is now underplaying wind as a possible solution, while continuing to promote natural gas. Some of his stakes in companies would be more valuable if natural gas consumption were to rise.
Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel, emitting fewer greenhouse gases than coal or oil. Many experts say they think it is underused as a power and transportation fuel, especially after new technologies recently unlocked huge reserves in shale gas fields across the country.
Proponents of natural gas took a back seat when the House of Representatives passed a climate bill last year, as lawmakers from coal-producing states dug in to keep coal as the nation’s principal fuel for electricity production. Natural gas may get a warmer hearing in the Senate, but its prospects there are also in doubt.
Skeptics say putting in the infrastructure for natural gas vehicles would be too expensive, and battery-powered electric cars and hybrids are a better alternative. And worries are growing that the techniques used to blast through shale rock to release gas could pollute drinking water.
“It’s very hard to move mountains on energy policy, and Pickens has not yet even moved a hill,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at Rice University in Houston. “The problem that Pickens faces is that in this country if you are from the oil industry, people are naturally suspicious of what you say on energy policy.”
Since Mr. Pickens began his campaign in 2008, he has been on the road for 178 days, visiting 37 states and 80 cities. He has amassed 1.6 million signatures on a Web site.
For the new effort, he has developed three television commercials with a toughened emphasis on national security. He is preparing to tour the country again to inspire his “army” of citizens to lobby Congress for tax incentives. He will not disclose how much he expects to spend on the effort this time.
In the old version of the plan, Mr. Pickens called on the country to build thousands of wind turbines from Texas to Canada and install transmission lines to deliver the new power to cities across the country. Now, he is playing down wind because he says it has become almost impossible to finance a wind project, largely because cheap gas has made wind power less competitive. His focus is now almost entirely on gas.
He wants the president to convert the entire federal automobile fleet to natural gas. Then he wants Congress to give large tax credits to companies that use natural gas vehicles, and filling stations that install the necessary equipment. By Mr. Pickens’s estimate, just fueling a small percentage of the country’s trucks and buses with gas could displace as much as 8 percent of oil imports within seven years.
“All you need to do is get the oar in the water,” he said. “Then you are on your way to get off OPEC oil.”
Mr. Pickens has not been winning many battles lately. His natural gas fueling company spent an estimated $3 million on an unsuccessful 2008 California ballot initiative that would have authorized the state to borrow $5 billion to invest in natural gas and alternative energy. Then his multibillion-dollar wind project in the Texas panhandle fizzled because of the credit crisis, regulatory issues and other problems. He was forced to put the project on the back burner last year.
Mr. Pickens made his fortune as a buyout artist and raider, jostling the industry when he set his sights on companies like Gulf Oil and Unocal. He lost about $2 billion when oil prices tanked in 2008, but is still worth an estimated $1.2 billion.
Mr. Pickens drew ire on the left when he helped finance attacks on Senator John Kerry’s war record during the 2004 presidential campaign. But these days, some Democrats and environmentalists have made peace with Mr. Pickens. “It’s been valuable to have Boone as part of the team,” said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. This week Mr. Pickens held a news briefing with John Podesta, a former Clinton White House chief of staff, to promote natural gas legislation.
Mr. Pickens talks on the stump about eating cheeseburgers with former Vice President Al Gore and, while he stands by the attacks on Mr. Kerry, he said he was now willing to work with the senator.
“That’s a long time ago,” he said. “When you’re old, you can’t remember that far back.”
39 Comments
Anonymous
Flyguy
I am not sure that T is being intellectually honest, however. I think he wants to establish a government-subsidized monopoly and then be in a position to collect even more loot.
Anonymous
EricK
I trust someone like Pickens (someone who has run a successful enterprise, at the very least they understand math) more than any career politician. Perot hit a few nails on the head in his bid for the presidency. NAFTA=No Good, Energy dependence=No Good, The national debt=No Good.
Davido
Jim, it does appear that global production of conventional oil has peaked and that little has been done. Do you agree/accept that nothing has been done because having crisis is the plan? Consider these words written by Gordon Laxer, Political Economy Professor -University of Alberta. http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/EI/papers/Laxer.pdf This is, of course, but one brick in the wall to build intentional crisis.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Imperial Dependence or Conservation Independence?
"To illustrate US policy choices regarding the use of domestic versus foreign energy, I want to start with two historical figures – Walton C Ferris and Jimmy Carter. You’ve heard of Jimmy Carter. I venture that few of you have heard of Ferris. Ferris was a career foreign service officer in the US State Department working on oil matters just before US involvement in World War II. "
"Although the US inherited perhaps the greatest store of oil of any country in the world, the full extent of US reserves were not known in the early 1940s. Contemporary projections put US reserves at 14 years of domestic supply. Planners anticipated much higher oil usage by the US and its allies when the US joined the war.Ferris prepared a report just before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. His solution seems to have guided US oil policy ever since. As the world’s leading oil producer then, the US had enough domestic oil for its own needs and those of its war-time allies. But, if it did so there would be insufficient domestic oil remaining for future crises, Ferris argued. He recommended that the US conserve domestic reserves, not by reducing wasteful use at home, but by using more foreign oil. The problem, he argued, was that other countries also sought additional supplies from the same sources as the US – the Middle East, Venezuela and Mexico. Ferris concluded that US foreign oil policy be “more and more aggressive” to ensure US access to foreign oil."16
"Ferris’ boss, Max Thornburg saw the main US problem as how to secure the rights US oil companies already had to foreign oil reserves, from being nationalized. He encouraged the US to use American-owned oil companies as instruments of US government oil policy, and wielding state power to reduce corporate risks. Historian David Painter put Thornburg’s position thus: “If the United States were to maintain its dominant position in world oil, it would need a positive foreign policy that protected its interests and anticipated problems between US companies and foreign governments17”. As Dick Cheney later said “Oil is government business”. These wartime policies set the US roughly on its present course of preventing a too-rapid depletion of American energy resources, by depleting other countries oil and gas developing a symbiotic relationship with US oil corporations. But, don’t raise the issue of colossal waste of fossil fuels at home, as a way to conserve domestic resources."
From: http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/EI/papers/Laxer.pdf
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Anonymous
Rome is already ashes.... go tour any innercity neighborhood in the USSA... ie. Detroit...LA...Philly...!
Nero is laughing in his grave about 9/11.
JimQ
We imported 4.35 billion barrels of oil in 2009 at a cost of over half a million dollars per minute.
Yes, you read that correctly.
4.35 BILLION barrels imported in 2009.
Over $500,000 dollars spent per MINUTE on foreign oil.
That’s another $265 BILLION siphoned out of America’s struggling economy, and we still haven’t adopted a real energy plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Robmu1
Excellent news on the $5 gas...no traffic.
Davido
While the dollar is the world's reserve currency, held mostly by foreigners, we remain able to print money for oil and distribute the cost throughout the rest of the dollar holding world. Foreigners are paying for most of our oil consumption.
Don't be obtuse. The U.S. has no need to reduce its dependence upon foreign oil, -instead the plan is to ruin the U.S. economy and use superior U.S. force to control other nation's oil. It is a very concrete energy plan. However, you and I (john Q public) were not consulted. The plan has already been put dramatically into effect. Elites have put our troops in Saudi Arabia (largest stated oil reserves), Kuwait (at one time the 5th largest stated reserves), Iraq (third largest reserves), and either in or around most every other important oil producing nation in the world. The vast majority of Americans do not support our foreign adventurism. However, the public is not in control of Congress, and Congress is not in control of national policy. Instead, our ruling oligarchy wants control of global oil supplies, and moves daily through the U.S. military to ensure their control. And the economy? Some guy runs a website called TheBurningPlatform that can tell you where the economy is headed. Domestic oil consumption will be going down. Now that is an energy plan!
Anonymous
Jim,
"and we still haven’t adopted a real energy plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."
Hey wait a minute! Jimmy Carter launched the Dept. of Energy to render the USofA 'energy independent'.
Surely after billion$ in this beheamoth and decades later the mission has been accomplished...no?
Robmu1
Gas is $8 a gallon in Italy. Oh the humanity.
Anonymous
8 bucks is cheap when you consider how much this country has spent on trying to control or steal the shit WITHOUT any results.
David2
The populace is being treated on a daily basis to a Three Ring Circus.
Terror (created in DC), Rhetoric (serving Wall Street) and Spin (MSN) which is intended to "placate the masses", (for now).
The "hearings" in Washington are for public consumption and serve only to point blame AWAY from where it is deserved. While the finger pointing continues, so does the outright... in-your-face... fraud and theft.
Wall Street bonuses are being announced and delivered while Washington is putting on a show of "concern" on how any of this could have happened.
Hank Paulson has written a book explaining his "mindset" during the 2007-09 collapse.
He was interviewed on CNBC and said NO ONE saw it coming and no one could have.
Huh? I personally read dozens of people who saw it coming years ago.
Hell! Goldman Sachs saw it coming without a doubt. If Goldman didn't see it coming then why and how did they trade against real estate and CDO's and MBS's?
Mr. Paulson thinks that people are so stupid as to believe his old firm didn't give him a heads up about the coming collapse?
He didn't need a heads up anyway... he ran Goldman while the bubble was being blown, so he had first hand knowledge.
They cannot play dumb because they are not dumb, they knew exactly what they were doing.
The stupid populace and idiotic Congress and Senate for the most part WERE hoodwinked... (?)... but you cannot tell me "the owners" didn't know.
If many saw this coming prior to 2007, how is it possible that Benanke, Paulson, Geithner, etc. didn't? They surely have more (how about unlimited) resources to draw on to dig for information and thus the truth.
Bottom line, they drove the bus into a ditch on purpose so they could collect the insurance money!
A very typical, classic, Mafia MO...ie: Larry Silverstien collecting on the WTC...
Call me a conspiracy nut, or whatever you like, this was no accident because a 13 year old could have avoided what happened.
... any normal person... honest person... would not have allowed any of the self dealing, fraud, theft, pork, deficits, fake money, derivatives, etc. to ever have occurred.
Now we only wait for the final "act" another FalseFlag! event, another BlackOp!...WWIII !
When all is said and done, the once, long ago, proud and semi-self reliant American citizen will wake up one day to find out his debit and credit cards no longer work. His bank accounts, retirement plans and all savings will be shuttered until the "new currency" can be issued. His job and house will be history and food will become "privilege".
If you think I am joking or you are currently laughing at me... just wait !
We have complete global financial collapse that was Signaled and Began on 9/11 ... that has been "orchestrated" by those not satisfied living a "good life" unless they have control over everything.
Laugh all you want! .... indebt the public, dumb them down so they no longer farm, hunt, work or even think for themselves and then pull the rug out!
Next offer public shelter and food, then what do you have? Control the herd of sheep that will work for food and shelter and be happy for what they are getting.
100+ years ago it was called "another day older and deeper in debt", in other words the government that was ELECTED to SERVE has become "the company store"... an arm of the Fascist World Oligarchy.
We have done exactly what was feared most, we have given up liberty for so called "security".
I hope that the recent Massachusetts election is a precursor to the Americans "throwing the bums out" and finally waking up!
But I truly doubt it!
One can hope ... I believe it is better to prepare yourself, fend for yourself and get some metal (real money) out of the system while it is still possible.
Shelter your families
Move Now
Or Be Moved later
Bill H
In my opinion the bottom line here is that we are living through an "operation".
This "operation" is smashing everything and levitating the Dollar and smashing gold for the benefit of "the owners".
Not to make them immediately wealthy but to allow them to EXIT these Dollars and into assets that have (or will be) crashed.
I think that THIS rally in the Dollar is the FINAL rally and will allow those in the "know" to make their exit.
It would also offer a great opportunity for the U.S. to roll out the much rumored "Amero" or something like it.
I've always thought that any "new currency" would be offered under the cover of a financial calamity or a war.
Both are happening.
Both conditions are ripening everyday!
Enjoy a snowbound weekend.
And the Stupid Bowl !
Regards
Marc Stinebaugh
Global tension is escalating at an alarming rate, the idea that there could be a false-flag attack during the Olympics is purely speculation based on many factual current events and historical precedent.
I feel the mention of it is justified in the interest of our national security to keep an eye on potentially dangerous overlapping occurrences.
Vancouver 2010: False Security - Real Terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVI19BXNBhk&feature=player_embedded
The games will take place in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler from Feb. 12th until Feb. 28th. Below, I have compiled the following suspicious activity and coincidences by searching and analyzing the news from various media sources.
In my opinion, an attack during the Olympics while it is being highly guarded would be the perfect way to bring in more police state measures and to more fully integrate the US and Canada into a functioning North American Union. I provide evidence of this taking place already but there may be another motive at work here to expand the “war on terror” into more nations while blaming an attack on the scapegoat for everything, Al-Qaeda.
However, the question remains, is that what will happen? In more recent news, it looks as if Iran may be the one to take the blame.
Look at the information and make up your own mind as to what pattern you see unfolding, this could really go any number of ways. Information provided is for analytical and educational and is meant to raise public awareness of current events and the potential dangers they could present.
Linked sources will be provided at the bottom of the article for reference and additional information, please do follow the links and check my information.
If you see any mistakes, please feel free to point them out by contacting me through email and/or comments.
http://dprogram.net/2010/01/25/could-vancouver-2010-could-be-the-next-911/
http://www.infowars.com/could-vancouver-2010-be-the-next-911/