Copy & paste off another board:I post as it brings out the issue of transfer of wealth
PICKENS PLAN--NATURAL GAS
eaglefreshair
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7/21/2008 6:54:44 AM | | 103 reads | Post #23580180
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America is addicted to foreign oil.
It'san addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and ournational security. It touches every part of our daily lives and tiesour hands as a nation and a people.
The addiction has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis.
In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.
Today it's nearly 70% and growing.
Asimports grow and world prices rise, the amount of money we send toforeign nations every year is soaring. At current oil prices, we willsend $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that'sfour times the annual cost of the Iraq war.Projected over the next 10years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transferof wealth in the history of mankind.
America uses a lot of oil.Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And21 million of those are used here in the United States.
That's 25% of the world's oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world's population.
Can't we just produce more oil?
Worldoil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and anunprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over thelast three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder tofind and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand.
The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.
What's the good news?
The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.
Studiesfrom around the world show that the Great Plains states are home to thegreatest wind energy potential in the world — by far.
TheDepartment of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can comefrom wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power formore than a quarter of the country.
Today's wind turbines standup to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. Theblades collect the wind's kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawattwind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.
Windpower currently accounts for 48 billion kWh of electricity a year inthe United States — enough to serve more than 4.5 million households.That is still only about 1% of current demand, but the potential ofwind is much greater.
A 2005 Stanford University studyfound that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy globaldemand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.
Buildingwind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandleto North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the UnitedStates at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion tobuild the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.
That'sa lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain.
An economic revival for rural America.
Developing wind power is an investment in rural America.
To witness the economic promise of wind energy, look no further than Sweetwater, Texas.
Sweetwaterwas typical of many small towns in middle-America. With a shortage ofgood jobs, the youth of Sweetwater were leaving in search of greateropportunities. And the town's population dropped from 12,000 to under10,000.
When a large wind power facility was built outside of town, Sweetwater experienced a revival. New economic opportunity brought the town back to life and the population has grown back up to 12,000.
Inthe Texas panhandle, just north of Sweetwater, is the town of Pampa,where T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Power is currently building the largestwind farm in the world.
At 4,000 megawatts — the equivalentcombined output of four large coal-fire plants — the production of thecompleted Pampa facility will double the wind energy output of theUnited States.
In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture the turbines and blades. These are high skill jobs that pay on a scale comparable to aerospace jobs.
Plus,wind turbines don't interfere with farming and grazing, so they don'tthreaten food production or existing local economies.
A cheap new replacement for foreign oil.
Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation.
Cleaner