I thought that the money for the Pickens Plan was coming from the state of Texas to build transmission capacity from the wind farms in the west of the state to the gas producing areas in the east of the state.
According to Susan Berfield of Business Week, Pickens owns the rights to more water than any other American through his firm Mesa Water, “and is looking to control even more.”116 He hopes to sell about 65 billion gallons of water to Dallas every year, but must first construct a 250-mile pipeline through 650 private properties to do so.117 If he fails to gain access through just one of those properties, the entire pipeline will fail.
When the Texas Legislature convened in January 2007, Mesa Water hired lobbyist J.E. Buster Brown.118 Brown helped secure an amendment to a piece of water legislation that allows “a water-supply district to transmit alternative energy and transport water in a single corridor, or right-of-way.”119 If Pickens builds a pipeline to deliver water, he can use it to deliver energy from windmills.
Berfield summarizes for Business Week what happened next: “Pickens still needed the power of eminent domain if he was going to build his pipeline and wind-power lines across private land. And by happy coincidence, the legislators passed a smaller bill that made that all the easier.”120
The bill eased the requirements for creating a water district.121 Originally, five registered voters living within the water district had to be elected as its supervisors.122 But now, the five voters only needed to own land there.123
Pickens sold eight acres of his ranch to five of his employees that summer. Mesa Water then filed a petition “to create an eight-acre water-supply district with those five as the directors and sole members.”124 The water district was created, so Pickens’ employees can now use eminent domain proceedings and issue tax-exempt municipal bonds. In April 2008, Mesa Water sent letters that informed landowners in the area that their lands could be condemned by eminent domain if they refuse to sell.125
The same could happen across America if the Pickens Plan is adopted.
Don't be fooled. The Pickens Plan is about the naked brute force of government at the service of millionaires and their crony politicians.