Every president since Jimmy Carter has called for the country to become more energy independent. Yet none of them have ever done anything to accomplish that. The result is that our reliance on foreign oil has inexorably increased. With the current turmoil in the Mideast, the price of gasoline breaking the $4-a-gallon barrier and the Chinese becoming voracious competitors for imported oil, this would seem an ideal time to pass a law that could lessen our dependence on foreign crude.
Oilmen are incorrigible optimists, and Boone is no exception; he thinks the bill will pass quickly. Not long ago, President Obama spoke out in favor of it, in a speech that included a shout-out for Boone. Already, the bill has attracted 157 co-sponsors. “I think the House can pass it in 30 days,” Boone says.
I hope he’s right. Natural gas is cheaper than oil. It’s cleaner. And it’s ours. If Congress can’t pass this thing, there’s really no hope. ”ƒ
If Congress doesn’t pass this bill, then they’re worse fools than I thought they were.
Sorry, but I’m skeptical of anything T. Boone Pickens proposes “for America.” Mark this: He’s proposing for the benefit of T. Boone Pickens.
Remember how he announced during the last presidential campaign that he was going to build the largest wind farm in the country (here in West Texas)? He never did; it quietly died. Along with it, the jobs and companies that were gearing up here to support that wind farm took a big hit. So, he wants a bill that will provide a billion dollars in incentives to do this, huh? Of course he does.
No fear, though. Other companies stepped up and my area produces the highest amount of wind electricity in the country. About 25 percent of Texas’ electricity comes from wind now and, with the transmission line upgrades, that percentage will rise. Right now, we can’t transmit half of what the wind farms are producing, not until the transmission line project is completed. And we didn’t need T. Boone Pickens or a billion in government incentives.
Hmmm . . . I believe the 26% is actually “wind generating capacity” — which is a rather different thing. The actual power *generated* by wind in Texas accounts for 8%:
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/electric-reliability-council-texas/why-texas-is-using-more-coal-wind-and-less-gas/
Further, wind is only competitive in cost to other forms of energy through government tax incentives — the federal production tax credit [PTC]. In other words, the government subsidizes wind power rather like it does corn for ethanol.