Pickens blows hot on wind, cold on oil

Influential Texas oilman and investor T. Boone Pickens has a new plan to help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil: wind.

Pickens, who has invested heavily in wind after making his fortune in oil, makes a simple case: By boosting wind energy, the United States could use its vast natural gas reserves to power vehicles, dramatically cutting the country's $700 billion-a-year dependence on foreign oil. That oil, he says, "has a stranglehold on our country that we can't live with."

By his account, America imports 70 percent of its oil and uses most of it for transportation. At the same time, while natural gas is burned in 8 million vehicles around the globe, most of the domestic natural gas supply is burned to produce electricity. His plan calls for building wind farms throughout the Great Plains, from Texas to North Dakota, and using that electricity to free up natural gas for transportation. Pickens says that shift to natural gas could cut our oil demand by 38 percent, at a savings of $300 billion a year.

Not surprisingly, the 80-year-old multi-billionaire is putting his money where his mouth is. His company, Mesa Power, recently announced plans to build the world's largest wind farm, a 4,000-megawatt, $10 billion complex in Pampa, Texas. Pickens has said he hopes Texas will build the power lines necessary to transmit the electricity, but also has said he would build the lines himself, if necessary.

Pickens, whose autobiography, "The First Billion is the Hardest," is due out in September, has been saying that global oil production has hit its peak, as well as that alternatives must be found to coal-burning power plants. Wind is the future, he says, telling The New York Times earlier this year, “I have the same feelings about wind as I had about the best oil field I ever found.”

While it's hard to criticize Pickens' vision for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, critics are pointing out what they think are weak points. Prominent energy wonk Geoff Styles, writing today in the blog "Energy Collective," says expanding the wind industry would be an enormous undertaking — perhaps more than Pickens estimates.

For one, it would require Big Wind to grow 18-fold in 10 years, Styles says. At the same time, nearly half the nation's vehicles would have to be replaced or converted into natural-gas burners, and an entire fueling infrastructure would be needed. And if clean wind power is going to eliminate some form of nonrenewable fuel, wouldn't it be better to eliminate coal, he asks.

Others question Pickens' assumption that natural gas will remain inexpensive, even as demand rises. “This plan strikes me as a huge leap of faith that rests on some dubious assumptions,” John DeCicco, a senior fellow with Environmental Defense, told CNBC blogger Kenneth Stier.

On the other hand, when T. Boone Pickens talks, people listen, and his vision of wind energy could be looked back on as a turning point in the quest for clean forms of electric power. As Styles writes: "On the whole, we should be grateful to Mr. Pickens for providing us with an interesting, non-partisan 'straw man' proposal, to help us grapple with these complex issues."

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