Oil Billionaire T. Boone Pickens Turns To Wind
![]()
Image from brooklyn
For those of you not fortunate enough to know who T. Boone Pickens is, let me give you a brief rundown: he’s an egomaniac, oilman, and owns a hedge fund named BP Capital Management. He’s worth 3 billion dollars, and has given 230 million-plus to the athletic department of Oklahoma State University since 2005. He also gave 3 million dollars to “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” the stars of the 2004 presidential campaign. Suffice to say, I think he’s a bad, bad, man. And yet, even he knows that oil isn’t going to hold on forever: he just spent 2 billion dollars to start a wind farm in Texas.
Just how much wind power will 2 billion dollars buy you? 667 turbines from GE will eventually produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity, capable of powering 300,000 American homes. To provide a frame of reference, that’s the size of present-day New Orleans, Tampa, or St. Louis. This however, is just a drop in the ocean– Mesa Power, the company through which T. Boone (T-Bone?) Pickens is running the project, has established this as just the first stage of four, with an eventual generating capacity of 4,000 megawatts.
Known as the Pampa Wind Project, the wind farm will be in the Texas panhandle, and will be superior to an oil field in a vast number of ways, but one, especially that matters most to Pickens: “You find an oil field, it peaks and starts declining, and you’ve got to find another one to replace it. With wind there’s no deadline curve.”
Environmental Graffiti is up for four bloggers’ choice awards. You can vote for us for best entertainment blog, best blog of all time, best geek blog and best animal blogger.
If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subscribe to our RSS feed? We’ll even throw in a free album.
Comments
8 Responses to “Oil Billionaire T. Boone Pickens Turns To Wind”
-
Eco Interactive
Posted: May 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm1Reply to this comment.T Bone Pickens is a very smart man, an oil man no less, that gets it right nearly all of the time. His leadership in this area speaks volumes for how far we have come.
-
Bill
Posted: May 19th, 2008 at 5:30 pm2Reply to this comment.A bad, bad man, eh? For what? Being successful? Sharing his wealth? What a horrible guy.
-
Ann Non
Posted: May 19th, 2008 at 5:33 pm3Reply to this comment.Self interest may misguide someone on what is right for the country but money is money regardless of politics!
-
cca
Posted: Jul 8th, 2008 at 6:24 pm4Reply to this comment.why exactly is he a ‘bad bad man’?
-
Pat Clark
Posted: Jul 11th, 2008 at 2:28 am5Reply to this comment.I have a major patented concept to help with our energy crisis and would like to introduce it to Mr. Pickens. Could you plesee provide me with a means of contact.
Thank You
Patrick F. Clark
941-955-2000
patclarkart@verizon.net -
DickH
Posted: Jul 12th, 2008 at 4:12 am6Reply to this comment.T-Boone… You’re nothing but a self-centered capilist who will work the system to your own benefit regardless of how unethical it gets. DUH. You saw an opportunity… induldge asshole. It will be short lived!
-
Robert Allen
Posted: Jul 16th, 2008 at 3:04 am7Reply to this comment.I am an electrician from the Gulf Coast and am curently working in California. I plan to go home soon with out a position to go to. I have been working in the oil refinerys for a long time. The mother of invention is nessity; we need to do something now. With all the oil CO;s making well into the BILLIONS in as little time as a quarty of a year. I hope you give them a good run for the money. I know that oil will not last forever and that it is not good in any way for the invironment. I wish you luck in the wind farms and know that it can’t be anything bot good.
Robert Allen
Richmond, Texas -
Dave
Posted: Jul 20th, 2008 at 7:10 am8Reply to this comment.What happens when there is no wind? How does these wind farm help?

Environmental Graffiti: for environmentalists who don’t take themselves too seriously. 