A Fool With a Plan

By: Mr. Wilson on August 21, 2008

T. Boone Pickens was in town yesterday to sell his energy plans. Lincoln was one stop of many in his tour across the country to convince Americans to decrease our "foreign oil" addiction. LES's Doug Bantam makes an excellent point:

One of our biggest concerns is the intermittency of the wind and for ever wind turbine that you put in, there has to be a resource there to back it up.

Quite true. Investment in energy storage solutions is so far not a part of the PickensPlan -- or at least not a part Pickens has deemed worth talking about. Yet without the ability to store the energy generated by turbines, wind can only supplement, not replace, conventional energy sources. That's not nothing, of course. But it introduces the cost of maintaining redundant infrastructure, a cost which isn't talked about very often. Electricity storage solutions are in the works, but they still have a long ways to go. They need lots of help -- whether from Pickens or anybody else who wants to make a buck off the energy transition. Personally, I'm rooting for solar shingles on every roof combined with a fuel cell in the basement. That'll be a good day. As for the title of this post, it comes from Pickens' folksy line that "a fool with a plan is better than a genius with no plan". I'm not so sure about that. But then, Pickens is no fool. He just plays one on TV.

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hbrogan57

August 22, 2008 at 8:27AM

I wonder how long it will be before this guy tosses his hat into the political arena????

Seems his agenda relies a little TOO much on public help. The kind that would take taxes and the like to help support.

He could possibly buy any office he wants don’t you think???? Hell, he probably has a couple of senators in his back pocket right now.

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