T. Boone Pickens

[BritDownUnder]

Last week I noticed that Oilman T. Boone Pickens had died.

He had a plan to introduce wind power into Texas to free up Natural Gas to power vehicles. The wind power part seems to have been successful though not apparently by him but the Natural Gas part has not taken off.

I think he made a lot of right noises on renewable energy but it shows you can be in the business and still not know everything.

[ReserveGrowthRulz]

Last week I noticed that Oilman T. Boone Pickens had died.

He had a plan to introduce wind power into Texas to free up Natural Gas to power vehicles. The wind power part seems to have been successful though not apparently by him but the Natural Gas part has not taken off.

Natural gas took off, just not for vehicles. Elon picked batteries rather than CNG to power his cool next-gen transport scheme.

But the US is now a net exporter, and we're making boo-coo electricity with the stuff. T. Boones was another peak oiler at the end of the day, and using the peak oil fear meme to make a killing on collecting water rights in the American mountain west.

I think he made a lot of right noises on renewable energy but it shows you can be in the business and still not know everything.

Or even anything at all about resource economics.

[BritDownUnder]

I think the Pickens Plan was more about reducing America's need for imported oil and the economic and strategic consequences of those imports. Clearly he never anticipated shale oil but then again he never went ahead with the plan. Obviously he was surrounded by people who knew more than him and took their advice, or the people he tried to convince to lend him the money knew more than him.

From what I can find out, Texas does have some good wind resources along with the high plains area and it is starting to be exploited. You can see in the UK that high wind and solar output noticeably diminishes CC natural gas generated electricity output.

It shows how things have changed even in ten years. Lower cost renewables and battery storage and then shale gas/oil.

He gave a good TED talk in which at the end of it a young person asked him what he was going to do about future energy and climate change and he effectively kicked back the question back to the questioner and, to me anyway, he effectively said that he was old and didn't care and that it was up to the young to come up with a solution. Kind of a good rebuttal for Greta Thunberg types I think.

[vtsnowedin]

From what I can find out, Texas does have some good wind resources along with the high plains area and it is starting to be exploited. You can see in the UK that high wind and solar output noticeably diminishes CC natural gas generated electricity output.

.

It certainly does and Pickens was instrumental in its development.

CNN)Wind power has surpassed coal for the first time in Texas, according to a new report.
The numbers cap an enormous rise in wind power in the nation's top energy-producing state over the past decades.
Wind has generated 22% of the state's electrical needs this year. It just edged out coal, which provided 21% of the Lone Star State's power, according to the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas, which manages electrical flow on about 90% of the Texan grid.
Sixteen years ago, in 2003, wind made up just 0.8% of the state's power, and coal satisfied 40% of electrical needs, the council documents show.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/us/texas ... index.html[/quote]