What's the Dickens with Pickens?

The other night I was watching MTV and a commercial came on with an old guy talking in front of a bunch of windmills.  It got my attention because here in Nebraska we are on the verge of multiplying our energy sources through wind.  I listened, loved the commercial and went online to read more about the “Pickens Plan.” 

I signed up for their email updates and within 10 minutes I didn’t just get an obligatory email of “thanks for signing up, we will be in touch.”  Nope, that is too old-fashioned for Mr. Pickens.  Instead I got a Facebook message from one of his folks telling me more about the plan.  Now, that is very new media from an old skool kind of guy.  But with gas prices now at over $4, I guess anything is possible when it comes to the issue of energy this year.

Come to find out I am not the only one who has heard about the Pickens Plan and is intrigued.  I told the story above to three other young people this past week and they all had the same reaction, “yeah, I saw that commercial too, totally dig what the old guy is saying and the website.”

Who is this old guy, Pickens?

Mr. Pickens is an oil tycoon who has, essentially, “saw the light.”  After years in the oil investment world and seeing America’s import of foreign oil grow from 24% to over 70%, Pickens decided to take a bold step and put a lot of money into a media campaign about his new energy plan (a lot being over $50 million).  The plan is simple and essentially says America must get more energy from sustainable sources like the wind.

$50 million on pushing a plan, and a policy idea, out to the public is chump change compared to the over $700 billion dollars America sends overseas every year to foreign countries for oil.  According to the Pickens’ website that $700 million is four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.  It is no wonder why our government is in major debt right now and no wonder why so many of us think this Pickens guy standing in front of the windmills is alright. 

If there is any year to put out a plan focusing on alternative energy and convincing America to get off foreign oil, this is the year.  The hotly contested election not only at the top for President, but down ballot gives lots of room for folks like Pickens to push an idea and get some attention.  Putting pressure on the candidates, policy makers and the public is needed, but will his $50 million media plan be enough, especially when it comes to young voters?

Young Voters and Energy

Energy and the environment used to be issues left to the tree-huggers to care about.  Not anymore.  There are plenty of groups popping up this election that are focusing on young voters and energy—the biggest coalition is called Power Vote which is getting over 1 million young voters to vote for clean and just energy. If their conferences are any indication of the success and appeal to young voters, they will surpass the 1 million goal. 

Young people at the Power Vote events are not just saying people need to recycle or create more sustainable forms of energy.  They are talking about green jobs.  Pickens is talking about green jobs also.  It seems tying the tree huggers’ goal of a green earth to the economy is definitely a winning combination both for making America energy independent and for saving the earth.

There is lots of talk among young people these days about more drilling in order to get gas prices down.  Everyone wants a solution and wants a solution now about how we get gas prices back down to the $2 range.

Most of us now agree if we drill more that won’t result in a decrease in gas prices next week, heck even Pickens Plan won’t get us lower gases prices for another ten years.  But the question remains, do we invest in infrastructure now that will help make America energy independent or do we keep increasing our dependence on foreign oil?

Wind Energy in Nebraska

Out of all 50 states, Nebraska is sixth in the United States for its potential to generate energy from wind.  The plains states, those states in the middle of America, have huge potential for leading the generation of energy with wind.  In just one year, one of those big, modern windmills can produce as much as energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.  

The problem with all of this is that we simply don’t have the infrastructure to move off of foreign oil.  The word “infrastructure” used to mean nothing to me.  It just seemed it was another word folks there out there without giving us a solution.

As I have dug deeper in not only wind but with my other MTV stories on ethanol, infrastructure has taken on a whole new meaning.  It means retro-fitting our gas stations with ethanol pumps.  It also means building wind farms, pipelines, more rail lines and other systems to actually transport the energy outside of Nebraska to other states.  And all of this takes manpower to build which results in green jobs that we can’t export to foreign countries.

The infrastructure needed for America to start using wind as a main source of energy will take an investment of about $1.2 trillion.  That may sound like a lot, but if you think about how we are spending $700 billion every year importing oil, shouldn’t we go ahead and spend the $1.2 trillion once, which means investing in small towns, especially in rural America, so we then have the infrastructure to support the sustainable energy source of wind.

Wind energy is all about change—change from our dependence on foreign oil, change from our old ways of thinking about the environmental and conservation movement, change from young voters ignoring issues about energy production and use.  Wind is much more than a sustainable source of energy.  It is clean, pretty cheap and is creating new “green jobs” in places like Nebraska. 

Maybe ole Pickens is on to something.