Pickens' 'Energy Plan' Lacking in Actual Detail

Talk may be cheap, but oilman spending $58M to push empty rhetoric

By Jim O'Neill, Newser User

Posted Aug 6, 2008 11:44 AM CDT

(Newser) – T. Boone Pickens has plenty of ideas about making the US less dependent on oil, and he has plenty of reasons why. But broad generalizations about using wind power to generate electricity and natural gas to power cars doesn’t offer enough “how-to-get-it-done” detail to make it an actual plan, Holman W. Jenkins Jr. writes in the Wall Street Journal.

“Asserting that something would be good to do is not ‘a plan,’” Holman writes. “Saying how to do it is ‘a plan.’ By this standard, what the legendary oilman is devoting $58 million to pitch hardly amounts to a decent slogan.” Pickens’ pie-in-the-sky platform isn’t new, and bears a striking resemblance to John Kerry’s 2004 plan to reduce imports by a couple of million barrels a day.

Camels are seen beyond an oil well near the Khurais oil facility in an area where operations are being expanded, about 60 miles southeast of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

Oil and gas developer T. Boone Pickens addresses a town hall meeting on energy independence Wednesday, July 30, 2008 in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Oilman T. Boone Pickens speaks to energy industry officials in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo)

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Pickens' 'Energy Plan' Lacking in Actual Detail

Talk may be cheap, but oilman spending $58M to push empty rhetoric

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Pickens' 'Energy Plan' Lacking in Actual Detail

Talk may be cheap, but oilman spending $58M to push empty rhetoric

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OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

Persian Gulf • natural gas • Energy crisis • T. Boone Pickens • foreign oil

MOST POPULAR STORIES

[ By Views ]

[ By Comments ]

More Newser Stories

Natural Gas Finds Could Herald Energy Shift in US

Discoveries speed push to replace coal, oil

Pickens, Facing Headwinds, Pushes Energy Plan in DC

Falling oil prices, stock market have taken alternative-energy push along for ride

Bush is Botching $4.11, Just Like He Did 9/11

Drilling will only worsen America's addiction

Oil Tycoon Kicks Off Energy Campaign

Pickens wants to wean us from foreign supply with wind, natural gas

Qatar Navigates Persian Gulf Minefield

Geography forces balancing act; gas wealth make it a player

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Site

Newser By Users

Community

Site Maps

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What is Newser?