Boone’s Farm: Oilman Asks Feds to Help Distribute His Wind Power

[phantom power]

Congress spends a lot of time talking about how to deal with the energy crisis. Today, it got down to the nitty-gritty: how to make alternative energy actually work.

(...)

While a parade of experts from the DOE to wind-energy lobbyists testified, the choicest remarks came from oilman-turned-clean-energy maven T. Boone Pickens.

(...)

But to really take off nationwide, wind power needs a national solution, the Senate heard. Western governors are teaming up with counterparts in Mexico and Canada to build their own clean-energy networks across state boundaries. But so far, the patchwork of federal and state regulations and permits is acting as a brake on wind power’s growth. That means Washington has to act, Mr. Pickens said, by tackling prickly questions like eminent domain and right-of-way across big swathes of federal land.

But even if it does, that still leaves the prickliest question of all: At a time when power bills are already climbing across the country, who’s going to pay for all the new lines?

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/06/17/boones-farm-oilman-asks-feds-to-help-distribute-his-wind-power/

[AndyTiedye]

1. Looks like a quote from somewhere. Do You Have a Link?

[phantom power]

2. doh. I updated.

[rox63]

3. I'd be careful about believing anything Pickens says

He's been the money behind many a RW smear campaign. Wasn't he the biggest money man behind the Swift Boat liars in 2004?

[phantom power]

4. I'm mostly interested in the interplay between grid upgrades and renewables.

Which are not especially coupled with Pickens project, although it is interesting that he's willing to invest in the turbines but not the grid.