Letter to the editor:

Energy luminaries pick up government slack

Gary Musser, Las Vegas

Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (2:03 a.m.)

While the president fiddles and Congress twiddles, some prominent Americans are trying to pull us out of our fossil fuel addiction.

First, Al Gore gave an important speech recently in which he challenged us to end our oil addiction in 10 years — electric cars will play an important role.

Second, T. Boone Pickens proposed a plan to build windmills from Texas to North Dakota to replace the natural gas we use for energy production and use the natural gas for cars instead. (Natural gas-powered cars may pose a huge challenge and the energy is still a fossil fuel on the decline. However, Texas just agreed to build a huge, improved web of transmission lines to feed windmill-generated power to its major cities.)

Third, Andy Grove, who built Intel, is urging a massive move to electricity and wants 10 million cars retrofitted to become hybrids.

What is most interesting is that these leaders in their fields are proposing energy independence for three different, but very important, reasons: Gore to fight global warming, Pickens to free us from Arab oil, and Grove to head off a resource war with China.

It is clear we need to modernize our grid. Much as the interstate highway system was built with federal and local funds, we need a similar program to rebuild our electrical transmission system nationwide to support the soon-to-be-available plug-in cars.

With unemployment growing, workers across the nation could be put to work building this system. The way to the future seems clear. The Southwest can play a huge part in building solar plants.

There are places that could use windmills and other locations that can produce geothermal energy. Wind power and wave power like those used in Portugal can be developed on the coasts. This can be an exciting era. But first we need to get the politicians to discover how to lead.

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By uddeboda

7/24/08 at 8:49 a.m.

Suggest removal

Getting the politicians to discover how to lead. They are so stuck in the mire of Washington, just to get them to see the light is a major operation, and then they have to start using their brains before voting, not as it is today, where everything is already decided by the big businesses, who have the politicians in their back pockets
By KDR81

7/24/08 at 9:02 a.m.

Suggest removal

Boon Pickens is asking for millions of dollars from the government and he'll be laughing all the way to the bank thanks to the "useful idiots" helping make him more rich.

There are other options that don't require a handout from the government, but if we keep asking our government to give these handouts those alternatives will not be developed (or be created more slowly) and we'll be stuck paying taxes so we can get more energy that we also have to pay cash for as well.
By jfnance32

7/24/08 at 9:20 a.m.

Suggest removal

I smell something rotten too about Mr. Pickens.

His plan is all about natural gas which he has tons of money invested in. It wants to do wind so that we can use the current supply of natural gas to run cars.

His plan for wind is all about the state of Texas where he is from and where he also has tons of cash invested in.

I think he has a grand plan to make himself one of the richest people on the planet.
By JohnF

7/24/08 at 3:17 p.m.

Suggest removal

T. Boone Pickens is already one of the richest men on the planet.

Some would call putting hundreds of millions of his own dollars into these technologies putting his money where his mouth is.
By jfnance32

7/24/08 at 4:39 p.m.

Suggest removal

You should read his website.

It is all about natural gas. Even the wind power deals with natural gas.

He has tons of cash in natural gas corporations.

I would believe him more if he said, "I will donote all my natural gas earnings to Mr Nance."