Having licked his wounds from last year’s billion dollar wrong-way bet on the price of oil, T. Boone Pickens has already suffered a set back in his foray into wind farming. The oilman’s centerpiece for getting the US off its foreign oil addiction was supposed to be the construction of the world’s largest wind farm in Texas. However, like most projects utilizing the shoot-fire-aim methodology, the sobering constraints of reality (lack of transmission lines in this case) have made T. Boone re-think his wind empire. Somehow lost on TBP was the fact that after generations of getting fat and happy on foreign oil, this country is a tad light on the infrastructure necessary to make a real change in energy sources. Next stop on the TBP green energy train, harnessing the power of positive thought.
Pickens Drops Plan for Largest Wind Farm [NYT]
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- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
ready-fire-post
Reality didn’t stop the ethanol bandwagon while it was hot.
he looks dry. lets burn him as biomass.
your best post so far bucko, now just keep movin in the right direction
Also, come on, you know the Gridwise initiative will totally just make everything ok with transmission/distribution (to say nothing of generation)…
look greg, praise from Anal, who’s posts here generated rave reviews!
Problem with alternative energy is that transmission and grid infrastructure is crappy and expensive to fix.
BTW fixing the energy problem would be real change rather than bailing out the banks so they can dole out bonuses to spreadsheet monkeys pushing deals.
@6
Are you the real Obama?!?
T. Boone is smart and hires only smart people to do smart things. Oh,…uh… wait a minute….
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/extra/article.aspx?subjectID=93&tab=osu&articleid=20090607_93_B1_Afterl4468
did anyone else see “boone” this am on cnbc? am I the only one who thinks he doesn’t have all his synapses firing at once? he must have had 10 “senior” moments, including one where he could remember his zodiac sign…oh the joys of aging. perhaps it’s time to pass along the reigns?
I am proud to be a Texan.
Houston trader
Cluzo- Please tell me you are being cute and that no one asked Boone his zodiac sign. I know it was CNBC, but please…
TBP, reality is a bitch man.
BHO
Shoot = fire
@11 um yes they did around 7am. Maybe that was during your walk of shame this morning.
BOOM goes the BLANUS!
Decided to set up shop at DB offices instead since the wind in Texas doesn’t blow as hard as Greg’s posts.
At least this guys thinking outside the box and understands that our addiction to foreign oil warps everything in this country, particularly foreign policy. You think we’d be kissing the Saudi royal family on the lips if we didn’t need their oil desperately????!!!!
Give the guy a break, you should be thinking 10% as much as him at his age!!!!
@14
there’s no shame in sharing the night with a ace like me.
A. Greenberg
Goldman’s trading program is so powerful it warps light passing by.
@17
oh i though it was beacuse they use cherry chapstick
@tax chick – joe asked him because he wanted “to know what angle” boone was coming from. carl came up with the correct answer for him (right at the open):
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1174039009&play=1
@17 – I’m not sure if this is “outside the box”. a lot of people have been calling for the US to reduce its dependence on oil. he’s just been more outspoken than others because he, similar to the hedge fund guys who go on air, likes to talk their books…but yes, for a guy who is 81, he’s still on top of his game – but the edge has dulled a little.
@17
It’s the quality of thought rather than the quantity of thought that counts. I should know.
JC
@17, Thinking outside the box… yea, like the boys at freddie and fannie??
Its not an addiction to foreign oil, its an addiction to progress and cheap energy… fking tool. Foreign policy comes from the military-industrial complex and if you are under the delusion that anything is wagging that tail, then there’s a bridge in Brooklyn that you want to look at purchasing.
“However, like most projects utilizing the shoot-fire-aim methodology, the sobering constraints of reality…Next stop on the TBP green energy train, harnessing the power of positive thought.”
Clearly NOT written by Gregory. Sounds like Bess typed it up, got up to get a coffee and call Gaspo re: dinner plans tonight, and Gregory jumped on the opportunity to redeem himself after setting the anti-record of 20 mins with no comments on an article earlier today. Way to go, Gregory! Now back to Monster.
@23
You may not like Pickens but he is facing down the tough questions. Hiding behind your spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations is not going to do anything.
Step 1: Use your new ownership to force GM and Chrysler to mass produce cars that only use natural gass.
Step 2: Subsidize the cost of converting the majority of existing gas stations to natural gas stations; also subsidize the cost of natural gas.
Step 3: Profit (well not profit but dump your shares and buy everyone health care)
@23 You’re the tool if you don’t think our addiction to foreign oil doesn’t warp US strategic thinking. You think we’d give a rat’s ass about anything in the Middle East if they suddenly ran dry of oil?
And, yes, lots of people are talking about getting off of foreign energy, but Boone is one who has a plan and has put it out there for everyone to see. Natural gas for cars and wind for electricity is a great start. Oh, he’s ran into a dilemma related to transmission. Oh, crap, let’s just go back to sitting around with our thumbs in our asses and cry. OR MAYBE, we can just solve the problem. Seems Americans used to be good at problem solving (see the Apollo mission for one “small” example!). Too bad the country is run by a bunch of spreadsheet monkeys pilfering money off other people’s successes!!!! Losers!
@27
The only problem is that spreadsheet monkeys at Goldman are taking down 700K on average this year.
They may add no value / speculate but their voice in govt is a lot stronger than yours / mine.
The fundamental issue is that the US govt is bought and sold. 1st it was oil money / war money with Bush and now it’s banks with Obama and the old Chicago political machine. Crooks on the left and crooks on the right.
I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He’ll be be dead or senile soon (in which case case more engaged people will reallocate his money).
Goldman has a powerful software program, which if used unfairly, can manipulate votes in Congress. It’s octal-based code, having an integer from 1-7 in the leading space, followed by a number of zeros. It is green and can be deployed remotely into a reelection committee’s bank account, or in a grocery sack passed from hand to hand.
Goldman is a Manhattan bone sucker. NOTHING to learn there anymore.
What about the West & East coast of FL, Alaska, coast of CA, etc,etc. If fucking politicians would pull their fucking heads out of their ass they would see oil, jobs, export opportunity, etc. These things don’t mean the end of altenrative energy discovery. It will happen. Just not now.
And NO, I don’t give a fuck about green house gasses!…Oh, and why can’t “The KOP” and Al Gore trade places today? AG is the biggest D-Bag ever to walk the earth.
Its not “shoot-fire-aim” Greg.
What you’re looking for is “fire-ready-aim.”
Jeez, you New Yawkers…..
Pfluger
What did T Boone finally accept for a “lunch” with him a la Buffett?
best anus post yet. LOVE the TBP forgot-what-to-order-due-to-alzheimers pic
That the US can end its dependence on foreign energy is a nonsensical fantasy peddled by people, like Mr. Pickens, who are trying to sell you something.
Sort of not bad. Keep up the improvement.
@27, a “dilemma” related to transmission? He built hundreds of very high capex megawatts in a completely stranded market where wholesale power prices are many times actually negative on a per MWh basis (the local power pool is so congested, ERCOT penalizes for dispatching).
So high capex, negative gross margins, no real hope for renewable energy credits in Texas, record high nat gas storage numbers–that ain’t a dilemma. It’s a clusterfuck.
BFD. Everyone knows the purpose of the latter half of this decade was to wrench billions overnight from rich old men who spent the past 80 years building up the cache.