Posted on 07/28/2008 5:59:33 AM PDT by Clive
One of these words is not like the others. But then again, T. Boone Pickens isn't like the others either. Today, Stephen Marche examines a typical quote from a delightfully atypical enviro-crusader
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The general rule, that everything before the but is bullshit, does not apply in the case of T. Boone Pickens, the ex-wildcatter and current hedge-fund manager from Texas. Pickens' is the latest, and perhaps strangest, voice calling for a radical change in America's relationship with the environment. He has decided to spend $58-million of his own money on an ad campaign to promote a new American energy policy -- one which would involve massive subsidies to himself as well huge gains for the clean energy industry. He believes that the United States can generate 22% of its energy from wind and solar power, which will free up 22% of natural gas reserves (much cleaner than crude and relatively plentiful in America) to service a newly engineered fleet of American cars which could run on natural gas, thereby freeing America from its dependence on foreign oil. Simple.
Pickens looks and talks like an oilman. His limpid and luxurious Texas drawl is not the shrill sound of the typical environmentalist. Aesthetically, though not politically, he is the opposite of Al Gore, who recently "challenged" the nation to produce 100% of its energy from renewable sources within 10 years, a goal which even his supporters described as "superstretched." Nonetheless, Gore and Pickens have little but good to say about each other, which is remarkable considering that Pickens was a major sponsor of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign. He continues to support the Swift-Boaters, posting a standing offer of $1-million to anyone who can prove a single untruth in any of the nine anti-Kerry commercials he paid for. T. Boone Pickens is a fundamental Republican, and yet Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader, describes Pickens as "my political friend." The emphasis, one assumes, is on the word "political."
Pickens represents a new brand of environmentalism -- conservative but not pretending. He believes that the $700-billion the U. S. spends on foreign oil is a "national security crisis." Offshore drilling in Alaska is fine by him--one has the feeling that he wouldn't mind grinding up the caribou herds himself if their bodies contained any crude. He speaks the language of national, business and personal interest, not the language of organic wholeness, of harmony with nature, which has so dominated the environmental movement from its origins to today.
Pickens is new, and so important, because his vision of the future of the environment is not focused on life, or living things, but on money, his own and others. And the future of our money matters more to us than the future of life on the planet. This is one of the most disturbing lessons of our current situation, but it's also evident in every page of our history: our selfishness and greed are basic to us, older than original sin. In Genesis, God gives us "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth" before he even gives us names. The cruelty and self-destruction we are willing to inflict for dominion fills our history, ancient and modern. So it should come as no surprise that environmentalism as a form of idealism has been ineffective -- Al Gore calls us to take up our duties towards the future in the same way the greatest generation took on the Great War. But we aren't great. We know that. We are hyper-conscious of the imminent collapses of the natural world and yet have altered our behaviour only in miniscule, practically irrelevant way. Pickens' big idea is to change the ethos of the environmentalist project: Let's do this not because we're good people but because we're good businessmen. That proposal has a shot.
I would never bet against T. Boone Pickens. Nor should you. He spent a little less than $6-million on the Swift Boat Veterans and he got his money's worth. He's spending $58-million on promoting his new plan, deliberately choosing not to fund either presidential candidate for the duration of their campaigns. Potentially, his advocacy is the beginning of a massive shift in public consciousness about the environment, a move away from its status as a left-wing issue. Subsumption into the mainstream could be either a huge step forward or a huge step back for the environmental movement. Pickens doesn't deny the existence of global warming, and his folksy but disdainful sneer for those who do deny it -- "I can see what's happening to the glaciers … It doesn't take a genius" -- will convince a certain portion of the American public more than any number of Nobel-Prize winning scientists at the United Nations ever could. More importantly, he believes that there are rational courses of action open to us involving capitalism and national interest, rather than utopian visions of whole countries or groups of countries deciding to do the right thing. That's the spiritual deal he is presenting to the environmental movement: They must sacrifice virtue for effectiveness. The speed with which they have taken him up on the offer shows how desperate they are, how precarious they believe the Earth's position to be. Even Al Gore tires of virtue eventually.
No problem, and yes, I hope they do!
That’s good to hear. Maybe I’d like the guy.
“Nobody ever addresses what we are supposed to use for fuel until our cars are built to run on “whatever” replacement for gasoline or what they are going to do with the millions of gasoline powered cars.”
It is happening now, and Boone does address it also on his website. CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles, (Honda makes a Civic model), are available, as is the home filling station that you can put in your own garage. Fill up right at home using your home’s source of natural gas, or fill up at one of the terminals mapped on the Phill site. Honda will ramp up the availability of the car to other states shortly, but you can purchase one in NY and California. Even Chavez himself has ordered his country to be over 50% CNG vehicles in the next couple of years. Thailand and other Asian countries are already doing so, and have high-speed filling stations built already. Takes about 20 minutes instead of overnight. It’s 80% cleaner burning also.
Bingo....be careful though, some on this thread will call you an anti American troll
Comment:
I worked my way through college operating a Mexican Back Hoe and riding in a gang truck.
Is Mexican Back Hoe now politically incorrect for a shovel?
Also, converter kits are available for many current gas models with more coming. You can do it yourself if you are adept, or go to a certified installer.
He’s been a business man his whole life.
Is his life over now?
“What will it cost to place compressed natural gas pumps at every gas station?”
And what will widespread use of natural gas as a motor fuel do to home heating costs? In this case the expression “though the roof” is unfortunately quite appropriate!
We need to drill for oil, develop oil shale, and also coal gasification. Now!
Everything would be a lot easier if Al Gore was finally discredited. It’s difficult to invest billions when the majority party in Congress considers your investment an environmental crime.
And no one has claimed the million dollars yet. If it was a smear it should be easy to prove one Swiftboat Vet's statement was untrue. Are you lefties so rich and lazy you won't even do that much for a million dollars?
What am I to do with a 1982 El Camino?
There is probably not one mechanic in my hometown who could convert or work on one. I kid you not! LOL!
If I tried to fill up, I'd probably blow up the neighborhood!
Pickens is right about our dependence on foreign oil - it’s a disaster.
Now that I can agree with.
“First of all T. Boone was not spouting Democrat talking points but is pointing out that even with a massive drilling program we cannot defeat the future of a world with little oil.”
At $50 per barrel equivalent and up there is a huge amount of hydrocarbons in North America: coal, shale oil, tar sand, harder-to-get oil like the Baaken formation. Instead Boone has gone hat-in-hand to the Democrats in Congress asking for subsidies for his wind farms. And in return he’s giving them valuable political cover for continuing to refuse to drill. In my opinion Boone’s behavior is very poor.
Somebody needs to tell Washington where the calf sucks.
Can you tell me and this forum just how expensive and how long it will take to get into production enough energy sources to offset the 60% of oil we import?
Some still believe like JR Ewing that all you have to do is drill a hole anywhere, put up a Quick Trip or 7-11 and start pumping High Test and Unleaded.
Spend 58 million to get government subsidies of 580 million???
“went to a Democrat controlled congress and told the truth.”
Perhaps he told the truth, and the MSM took pieces out of context to make it sound like a lie. When Boone was quoted as saying that ‘you can’t drill you way out if it’ he was made to look like an enabler of Democratic obstructionism. If that wasn’t his intention, he ought to make it crystal clear to everyone.
devere wrote:
“went to a Democrat controlled congress and told the truth.”
Perhaps he told the truth, and the MSM took pieces out of context to make it sound like a lie. When Boone was quoted as saying that ‘you can’t drill you way out if it’ he was made to look like an enabler of Democratic obstructionism. If that wasn’t his intention, he ought to make it crystal clear to everyone.
Reply:
I do not trust the MSM and neither does most of America judging by their huge circulation losses.
T. Boone was on Hannity today doing just that.
As he said, the accountants are saying there is 86 billion barrels of oil not the geologists.
People tried to tell politicians back in the 1970’s that the constant lawsuits of the Sierra Club and other environ-mental one agenda intervention groups would someday bite the US in the butt.
That day came during Jimmy Carters term in office and again our elected politicians refused to recognize that we had major problems.
Many well-intentioned well-meaning folks on both sides of the issue have been dreadfully wrong.
However, this time, we as a nation cannot afford to be on the wrong side and expect to maintain our status as the greatest nation.
I say drill, drill now, and drill in my back yard if that is what it takes to keep America strong.
I am even game for windmills, nuclear plants, solar farms or anything else that might make any amount of difference in bringing down our dependence on those who would want to do us harm.
I find it odd that the Democrats do nothing but criticize John McCain for being to old to be president yet it is some 80 year old, supposedly over the hill Oil Field Trash Billionaire who has to come along and point out to these airhead politicians the way out of the jungle AKA an oil crisis.
T. Boone is a big boy and a very rich one at that and I doubt he will be buried in a paupers grave should windmills not make his return on investment.
He is however, miles ahead of Hairy, Nancy and Obama and most politicians when it comes to having enough common sense to understand that something has to be done and it had better be damn quick.
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