Posted on 07/10/2009 8:38:43 AM PDT by RatherBiased.com
T. Boone Pickens, like any good businessman, can read changing economic conditions. While he spent the 1980s as a “corporate raider” and oilman, in this age of Barack Obama and Henry Waxman, he has shifted his focus to lobbyists, feel-good green messages, and technology that depends on government subsidies. The result: Taxpayers will now be subsidizing T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire—and Republicans and Democrats in Congress tell you it’s for your own good.
This week, three senators proposed special tax credits that will subsidize Pickens’ latest business venture, which he calls “the Pickens Plan.” Like his previous undertakings, Pickens has launched his plan as a way to get richer. Unlike his previous undertakings, the Pickens Plan is completely dependent on government subsidies—and this has ingratiated him to politicians and media.
The Pickens Plan, in short, in this: We should get more electricity from windmills and power our cars with natural gas. Pickens happens to be a major investor in windmills and natural-gas cars. Both of these energy sources are heavily subsidized, but not enough for Pickens to profit from them, apparently.
This week, Senators Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Harry Reid, D-Nev., at Pickens’ urging, sponsored a bill to double the huge subsidies natural gas cars already receive, and to provide a $100,000 tax credit for the construction of a natural-gas filling station.
Pickens’ company is the leading builder of natural gas fueling stations, and thus the leading beneficiary of this subsidy. [...]
So while our government is running a trillion-dollar deficit, which will lead to tax hikes and inflation that make us and our children poorer, Congress is thinking of creating subsidies and a private tax cut to a man on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
It is what being a major contributor to the radical left gets for you. The enviro-nazis will be well taken care of — with our tax dollars.
T. Bill Pickens made about $1 billion last year with his energy hedge fund. He has been raking it in for the last 5 years and consistently makes in excess of $300 million a year PERSONALLY.
Build it yourself T Boone - sell bonds. Ahh potential bondholders might realize the projects will never make money? Phony!
http://junkscience.com/ByTheJunkman/20081211.html
http://junkscience.com/ByTheJunkman/20080911.html
T. Boone Pickens: “Corporate raider” turned fascist.
T. Boone Pick_Our_Pockets!
What world are you living in? Ol’ Boone (and his fund) took it in the shorts BIGtime last year. They were long natgas almost all the way down. Losses easily in excess of $500 million.
I don’t think that Natural Gas powered vehicles need much of a subsidy. They make sense in a lot of ways. CNG is a bit harder for cars, since the tanks take up a lot of room, but it will work on trucks and busses. LNG works find on cars since it is a denser fuel and tanks are smaller.
A small subsidy or reduced taxes might help get these moving faster. We should replace natural gas powered utility plants with nuclear, not wind.
And T. Boone had the gall to claim the other day on CNBC’s Squakbox that he won’t make any money with this — it’s his private equity firm that will make the $ billions... he’s probably only has a 55% controlling interest (I’m guessing). What a greedy traitor.
Pelosi is all tangled up in this stuff and Sanford supports it.
Yeah last year was bad but the years before he raked it in and early in 2008 he did well. He has been making +$100 million a year on avg for the past 20 years. He needs to invest his own money in windpower or find investors.
I couldn't agree with you more that he needs to find investors, as opposed to ripping off taxpayers. However, given the watermelons in Washington, he'll likely get his handout.
I am wondering if T. Boone's decision to get out of the wind energy business could have been influenced by the recent special session of the Texas legislature at which a bill was passed making the passage of imminent domain laws more difficult. One key/critical component of developing wind energy farms and the delivery of electricity (as in T. Boone's case) are available grid corridors from his remote west Texas land holding to urban areas such as the DFW metroplex. The purchase of land for said corridors would require local government enities in the path to pass imminent domain laws so to allow the purchase and development of these energy grid corridors.
Was it a distance issue or connecting onto the grid. I think we have 4 or 5 grids in the U.S. and Texas may have it’s own. These grids are closely protected by whomever controls them.
Did his hedge fund make money early in 2008 on oil? I realized he blew it on nat gas but he had been raking it in for years. He can spend his own money or sell junk bonds. Buffett is another fraud and Dem. Buffett went crying to DC after 9/11 to protect his reinsurance turf and to make sure American taxpayers shoulder the burder while his reinsure got all the cream.
T. Boone was less of a hyprocrite than Buffett but lately he is catching up.
Boone's fund was not a major player in the huge runup in crude prices; the big dogs were the index swappers (GS, MS, Merrill, et al.) and their clients, which included CalPERS and the Harvard endowment among many others.
Read Mike Masters' testimony to the Senate, almost exactly a year ago to the day. It's on the 'net, no problem. Fascinating stuff, and Masters is NOT someone to be argued with; he's been a real player for decades, and he just lays it out, 1, 2, 3.
Thanks. I need to find that info on Masters.
CNG requires approx 3,000 psi compression in auto tanks. Big ole kablooey if things go wrong in a wreck.
NG is a cryogenic gas and has to be cooled down substantially below O degrees in it’s liquid form so is not compatable for auto or truck use. Bad, bad juju.
CNG is a great fuel for internal combustion engines. Burns clean environmentally. Burns clean in a engine too, oil stays nice and clean for ages and is clean on combustion chambers and valves. It is very similar to propane in cleanliness and performance, slightly less MPG and HP. However, fueling up is very time consuming because of the flow rates and fuel compression requirements. It also has a higher octane rating than gasoline and loves higher compression ratios in the neighborhood of 12:1.
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