Billionaire oil and gas man T. Boone Pickens pulls the plug on a massive wind farm he had planned to build in Texas, citing an inability to raise capital to build the transmission lines to bring the power to the grid — and an absence of taxpayer subsidies to stuff Boone’s wallet, er, delays in new measures to boost renewable energy. From The New York Times:
“Two crucial provisions to aid renewable energy in the stimulus package
passed in February have yet to be introduced, Keith Martin, a tax and
project finance specialist with the law firm Chadbourne & Parke,
said.
Boosting renewables was always the sideshow in the Pickens Plan. Boone’s eventual goal was a federal mandate to produce 20 percent of energy from renewable sources — primarily wind — which would line his pockets as utilities flocked to purchase power from his wind farms. Mainly he was looking for additional government incentives pushing automakers to build more cars fueled with natural gas. Where the billionaire happens to have a lot of his fortune invested.
And for today’s musical interlude, let’s hear it from David, Nigel, and Derek:
