T. Boone Pickens' 'clean' secret

LA Times ^ | 29 July 2008 | Anthony Rubenstein

[shadowgovernment]

“If you object to goverment control of the marketplace, why are you adocating a big ol’ heaping pile of additional govermnent control and manipulation?”
>>>>>>>>>....................
advocating government control?? far from it.
I am saying again typing very slow so you all can understand:
Picken is working within the system we have NOW.
Not the one we all wish we had. He is a good business man
because he sees things as they are and acts on that knowledge. It is irrelevant if we do not want gov in the economy it's there and American business must work in this corrupt socialist system ..improvise and over come comes to mind.

[shadowgovernment]

“So, we should all just embrace socialism now?”
>>>>>>........................
there is a difference between embracing socialism and planning to make a business successful in a socialist
economy..Boone at least wants to put Americans to work and keep our capital in our country - goals that can only be met working with the socialism we currently have.
Until we rise up and revolt and over throw this current big government control we must do what we can to improve our own business and those of fellow Americans..Boone employs more Americans than any posting on FR and his plan for wind and nat gas if successful will do that in spades.

[gridlock]

advocating government control?? far from it.

When government grants subsidies to an individual or corporation to follow a certain course, that is control. The subsidy is the mechanism.

I am saying again typing very slow so you all can understand:

Well, thank you very much for that, for I am a bear of little brain...

Picken is working within the system we have NOW.

Yes he is. He sees an opportunity presented by our current irrational energy policy, and like the good businessman he is, he is moving to exploit it. He is betting that our Congress is too stupid, too lazy or too corrupt to do anything about it, and I would reckon that is a pretty good bet.

Not the one we all wish we had. He is a good business man because he sees things as they are and acts on that knowledge. It is irrelevant if we do not want gov in the economy it's there and American business must work in this corrupt socialist system ..improvise and over come comes to mind.

But he is not improvising in order to overcome government interference to build something that should be built. He is building something for the purpose of extracting a subsidy from the government. This is a non productive expenditure, and it is poor public policy.

In fact, Pickens is not overcoming or improvising at all. He is taking the government's instructions and implementing them. For doing so, he will be rewarded by that government with money from your pocket and my pocket. He is acting more like a trained dog than as a free man, doing tricks to get a treat.

[gridlock]

To repeat my post #27, pocket picking is illegal. What is pickens doing illegally?

Pocket picking is a fairly common metaphor for the government taking money from the taxpayer and offering nothing in return. Perhaps you have seen it before?

Of course, Pickens is doing nothing illegal. In fact, he will be rewarded handsomely by the government for following their instructions to the letter.

[calcowgirl]

Notice, as I said earlier, the subsidies come at the end upon production of electricity. All the upfront costs are at risk.

And what about the $5 Billion in bonds (Prop 10) that Pickens is promoting? Are you saying he won't benefit from that? That $5 Billion of California taxpayers' money is somehow his to risk?

[monkeyshine]

There is a lot of irony in all of this.

[shove_it]

Reread posts #26 & 33. Rubenstein is a competitor of Pickens and has an ax to grind. Do you really believe the taxpayers of CA would not be paying if Big Oil was socked with the cost of Rubenstein’s Prop 87? Big Oil's margins are slim and they are expert at passing increased costs on to consumers.

[NewJerseyJoe]

And suppose every car, every truck, every bus in America were replaced with a "clean" vehicle -- would that make the country cleaner and more energy-efficient?

Pickens seems to forget that, under that scenario, every city and town, every vacant lot, every green-space field, every abandoned industrial acre, would be covered many layers deep in now-junked gasoline cars and trucks. There's no way the "recycling infrastructure" would be able to handle that volume of junked cars. I wonder how "green" the environ-weenies will feel then, seeing sky-high piles of old cars -- rusting away, leaching fluids and heavy metals, providing habitats for untold trillions of mosquitoes, flies, and rats -- everywhere they go.

[calcowgirl]

Reread posts #26 & 33.

Did that.

Rubenstein is a competitor of Pickens and has an ax to grind.

Nothing wrong with competition. Other than competing, what ax does he have to grind?

Do you really believe the taxpayers of CA would not be paying if Big Oil was socked with the cost of Rubenstein’s Prop 87?

No. I'm not sure why that is relevant.

Big Oil's margins are slim and they are expert at passing increased costs on to consumers.

Of course they will.

[okie01]

Big Oil's margins are slim and they are expert at passing increased costs on to consumers

What it heaven's name would you expect them to do -- hide it under the rug?

[dalebert]

at any rate he is getting rich off it.

[dalebert]

Excuse me. I meant he is getting richer.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Why are you against diversifying where we get our energy from?

Alternative energies should come online on their own time, not with massive subsidies and mandates.

I agree with Pickens on natural gas for our vehicles, we have tons of it and natural gas is actually a better fuel than oil-based gasoline.