Legendary Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens is fully embracing renewable energy, and investing a great deal of money in what will be the world’s largest wind farm. The wind farm outside Pampa, Texas will place 2,000 turbines on more than 200,000 acres to generate 4,000 megawatts at a cost of $6 billion. Pickens is not only out to capitalize on renewable energy, he’s out to change how American’s get their energy.

The Pickens Plan involves harnessing renewable energy to replace natural gas as a source of power for electricity transmission. He would then take the natural gas and use it as a fuel for transportation. The impetus for this dramatic move is that the United States now imports 70% of its oil at a cost of $700 Billion a year, which is far too expensive to be sustainable.

While the United States is generally devoid of oil, we have a vast resource of natural gas. Turning to natural gas would exploit a domestic resource, with far less overhead costs than oil transportation today. Natural gas is much less expensive than oil, and it burns much cleaner.

Be sure to watch one of the videos on the Pickens Plan website. I was particularly impressed with the C-SPAN clip from testimony that Pickens gave to congress. In all presentations, Pickens shows maps to illustrate the strategic value of wind power.

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