Pickens' Heart-Warming Commericals - Are Not What They Seem!

Lately we’ve all been made aware of the heart-warming commercials TV about how private industry is going to break our chains of oil addiction through wind power, right? I’m one that is and was skeptical of this and still do not see it as a sustainable option. The power plants have to have power generated through fossil fuel anyway to make up for the variances in wind power. As we look further, it is clear there are alter motives by a certain T. Boone Pickens.

Pickens’ pitch is to “embrace wind power to help break our ‘addiction’ to foreign oil.” Pickens seems to leave out a very important tidbit of information in his commercials— water rights, which he owns more of than any other American.

“Pickens hopes that his recent $100 million investment in 200,000 acres worth of groundwater rights in Roberts County, Texas, located over the Ogallala Aquifer, will earn him $1 billion”(Milstein). However there’s more to making such a profit than simply owning the water. Rights-of-way must be bought to install pipelines, and opposition from anti-development environmental groups must be handled. Here’s the interesting part, according to information compiled by the Water Research Group, a small grassroots group focusing on local water issues in Texas.

Purchasing rights-of-way is often high-dollar and can take a lot of time — and what if landowners refuse to sell? While private owners may be difficult, governments can still exercise eminent domain to make sales. This is Pickens’ way of doing business. But wait, you say, Pickens is not a government entity. How can he use eminent domain? Ready for this?

Per Pickens’ request, the Texas legislature changed state law to allow the two residents of an 8-acre parcel of land in Roberts County to vote to create a municipal water district, a government agency with eminent domain powers. Who were the voters? They were Pickens’ wife and the manager of Pickens’ nearby ranch. And who sits on the board of directors of this water district? They are the parcel’s three other non-resident landowners, all Pickens’ employees. Ahhh, there’s the rub!

A local water conservation board member told Bloomberg News that, “[Pickens has] obtained the right of eminent domain like he was a big city. It’s supposed to be for the public good, not a private company.”

How does this tie into Pickens’ wind-power plan? Just as he needs pipelines to sell his water, he also needs transmission lines to sell his wind-generated power. Rights of way for transmission lines are also acquired through eminent domain — and, once again, the Texas legislature has come to Pickens’ aid.

In the most recent years, Texas modified its law to allow renewable energy projects (like Pickens’ wind farm) to obtain rights-of-way by piggybacking on a water district’s eminent domain power. Pickens can now use his water district’s authority to also condemn land for his future wind farm’s transmission lines.

Who will pay for the rights-of-way and the transmission lines and pipelines? Thanks to another gift from Texas politicians, Pickens’ water district can sell tax-free, taxpayer-guaranteed municipal bonds to finance the $2.2 billion cost of the water pipeline. And then earlier this month, the Texas legislature voted to spend $4.93 billion for wind farm transmission lines. While Pickens has denied that this money is earmarked for him, he nevertheless is building the largest wind farm in the world.

Despite this legislative largesse, it still smells fishy.

Although Pickens hopes to sell as much as $165 million worth of water annually to Dallas alone, no city in Texas has signed up yet — partly because they don’t yet need the water and partly because of resentment against water profiteering. But by the looks of it, it won’t be long!

A TreeHugger.com writer recently observed, “… I am left asking myself why the green media have neglected [the water] aspect of Pickens’ wind-farm plans? Have we been so distracted by the prospect of Texas’ renewable energy portfolio growing by 4000 megawatts that we are willing to overlook some potentially dodgy aspects to the project?”

It shouldn’t sit well with the rest of us either. Pickens has gamed Texas for his own ends, and now he’s trying to game the rest of us, too. Worse, his gamesmanship includes lending his billionaire resources, prominent stature and feudal powers bestowed upon him by the Texas legislature to help the Greens gain control over the U.S. energy supply.

T. Boone Pickens, does he really care about YOU the Farmer??

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/4275059