by boss
Pickens Wind Farm head for the scrap pile
After spending millions marketing his “Pickens Plan” to ease domestic dependence on foreign oil, T. Boone Pickens has scrapped his project to build the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle.
Tight credit markets and competition from cheap natural gas proved too much for Pickens to move forward with the renewable venture he once estimated could produce 4,000 megawatts of power by 2014.
Natural gas prices have fallen about 70 percent from last year’s high, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, while trade groups have predicted solar panel and turbine installations will decline 30 to 50 percent.
The oil tycoon blamed a lack of adequate transmission lines to carry electricity from remote locations to big cities, according to The Dallas Morning News. Although Texas regulators approved a nearly $5-billion wind-power transmission project, reported The New York Times, the lines wouldn’t reach Pickens’ project. The billionaire anticipated building new transmission lines but couldn’t find financing.
After digging its heels into the energy market, the wind-power industry is losing ground. Wall Street is part of the problem.
When business was booming, as many as 18 big banks and financial institutions were willing to take advantage of government tax incentives to help finance wind turbine installation, reported the Environmental News Network. Now only four are up to the task, according to Keith Martin, a tax and project finance specialist with the law firm Chadbourne & Parke.
Wind developers are left looking for capital.
Pickens has scaled back his wind-farm aspirations, and now plans to distribute the turbines he bought last year to smaller plots throughout the Midwest.
“I’m committed to 667 wind turbines,” he said “And I’m going to find projects for them.”
During his campaign to raise energy awareness—and rebrand himself as a green oil baron—Pickens appeared with Democratic Senatorial Committee Chairman Robert Mendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) this afternoon to announce new legislation supporting vehicles that run on natural gas, Politico reported.
“We have to get on with our natural resources,” Pickens said. “I really feel like I am doing something to help this country.”
