Legendary oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens promoting his new cause - using American wind to alleviate the nation's energy crisis and wean itself from dependency on foreign oil.
Pickens' plan calls for investing in enough wind turbines to provide 20% of the nation's energy and reducing oil imports by a third in 10 years.
This initiative requires the immediate extension of federal production tax credits to encourage strategic long-term investments to bring large amounts of wind power from windy areas to population centers."
According to the DOE technical report, achieving a 20% wind contribution to U.S. electricity supply by 20% would:
- Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25% in 2030;
- Reduce natural gas use by 11%, which would in turn lower the pressure on natural gas prices;
- Support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S., with an average of more than 150,000 workers directly employed by the wind industry;
- Increase annual revenues to local communities to more than $1.5 billion by 2030; and
- Reduce water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030.
With such encouraging projections we should all be committed to making this happen.
Comments(9)