Analysts skeptical of Pickens' plan
SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 1, 2008 -- UPI
Oil man T. Boone Pickens' plan to boost renewable energy sources to curb
U.S. oil dependence is unrealistic, some energy experts say.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that Pickens' plan would
substitute one expensive fossil fuel for another -- oil for natural gas.
Among other things, Pickens wants to generate at least 20 percent of the
nation's electricity from windmills and take the natural gas that would have
been burned power plants and instead use it to fuel cars and trucks.
"It's a pretty tall order to put that much wind capacity in place," said
Chuck McGowin, senior project manager at the Electric Power Research
Institute in Palo Alto, Calif.
The newspaper reported that proposed wind farms and transmission lines often
are opposed by communities.
"Just getting acceptance from the local populations can be a challenge, and
could become more of a challenge in the future if we build out as much as
proposed," McGowin said.
Even if the windmills get built, energy analysts expect that new natural gas
power plants would still be built.
"Those aren't going to go anywhere," said Ken Medlock, an energy research
fellow at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
"We're not going to back out of gas."
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