Pickens' Plan

As I noted in this post, Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens has some ideas on how to break our addiction of foreign oil. His 'Pickens' Plan' outlines how. He primarily is resting our hopes on wind energy and domestic natural gas. Since these alternatives have drawbacks, it is important to remember that this plan is a stop gap measure to buy us time.

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.

Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.

I am not extremely familiar with our natural gas reserves...I believe they are primarily used for home heating and peak demand electricity generation. It is also used in industry, shale oil recovery and ethanol production. I am unsure of the ramifications of large scale transportation demand on our natural gas supplies. Saudi Arabia has large natural gas reserves, but shipping it requires pipeline or liquidation infrastructure.

As for wind...it is great, and becoming competitive with other electricity sources. But as I noted in this post, it cannot cover very much of our demand in the near term.

What are your views of his plan?

What is your plan?