Pickens

Pretty comprehensive article on Pickens at Newsweek

Despite his rampant capitalist self-interest, the man is not too far removed. His refusal to put turbines on his 100,000+ acre ranch because they are ugly is bit disturbing. And his intention to create a huge Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) automobile market is very convenient considering he owns the most LNG filling stations in the country, via Clean Energy Fuels Corp. And better yet, his (failed) water pipeline plan, which successfully fought for eminent domain and included gerrymandering a district in the Texas panhandle to include only two of his employees, on his land, is about as bad as it gets.

But I can look past that – if it means that he will provide the necessary jumpstart for alternative energy to reach necessary scale. What is frightening about such ambitions as the water plan is not the strong-arming of government, but the  fact that the plan failed. The man has SO MUCH MONEY that he can afford to invest heavily without second thought. That wasn’t his only failure; he was driven out of the CEO position at Mesa Petroleum.

While I can’t outrightly oppose his plan, I do fear that if it does fail it could have catastrophic repercussions to the alternative energy industry.  I hope Mr. Pickens considers this, though his old age and $4 Billion makes  me wonder…