Post by Chernobyl on Jul 14, 2008 15:52:58 GMT -5
I've noticed the commercials on my favorite news channels lately and ventured on over to the website today --> pickensplan.com.
T. Boone Pickens -- General Swift Boater -- the guy most responsible for the undoing of the Kerry campaign for the Presidency, is promising us a better future if we build monstrous (er, monstrosities?) through the nation's mid-section in order to harness the power of the wind.
Should we take that course, 22% of the nation's energy resources -- natural gas -- currently used to help keep the lights on, could be redirected to filling the gas tanks of cars built to run on natural gas.
The costs for this conversion would be steep. I've seen the windmills peppering the sides of foothills (I-580 on the edge of the East Bay area [San Francisco] and Highway 58 near Tehachapi [between Bakersfield and Barstow] come first to mind) -- and it ain't a pretty site. From what I hear the birds don't fare well in the *windmill farms* either. I consider the farms to be a grotesque site. Give me rows and rows of corn anyday to steel gargantuans ruling the countryside.
Then there's the matter of retooling Detroit, Japan, et al and/or converting gasoline burning engines to natural gas engines. I like this idea. Anything that reduces our dependency on foreign fuel is a good thing, but I don't think it goes far enough.
We need to replace our current fleet of gas-hungry SUV's with vehicles that are going to get 100 miles per gallon -- or more! Replacing one 20 mile per gallon fuel for another will not provide us with long term solutions to a crisis that will loom on our doorsteps until we take the steps necessary to achieve the goal of 100 miles per gallon or more ... or battery operated cars that can take us 400 miles between charges instead of 40.
Pickens isn't backing a Presidential candidate -- yet. That shoe may drop shortly. Is McCain signed on to the Pickens' Plan? Obama? The Pickens' Plan may play a significant role in the outcome of the '08 election for President...
T. Boone Pickens -- General Swift Boater -- the guy most responsible for the undoing of the Kerry campaign for the Presidency, is promising us a better future if we build monstrous (er, monstrosities?) through the nation's mid-section in order to harness the power of the wind.
Should we take that course, 22% of the nation's energy resources -- natural gas -- currently used to help keep the lights on, could be redirected to filling the gas tanks of cars built to run on natural gas.
The costs for this conversion would be steep. I've seen the windmills peppering the sides of foothills (I-580 on the edge of the East Bay area [San Francisco] and Highway 58 near Tehachapi [between Bakersfield and Barstow] come first to mind) -- and it ain't a pretty site. From what I hear the birds don't fare well in the *windmill farms* either. I consider the farms to be a grotesque site. Give me rows and rows of corn anyday to steel gargantuans ruling the countryside.
Then there's the matter of retooling Detroit, Japan, et al and/or converting gasoline burning engines to natural gas engines. I like this idea. Anything that reduces our dependency on foreign fuel is a good thing, but I don't think it goes far enough.
We need to replace our current fleet of gas-hungry SUV's with vehicles that are going to get 100 miles per gallon -- or more! Replacing one 20 mile per gallon fuel for another will not provide us with long term solutions to a crisis that will loom on our doorsteps until we take the steps necessary to achieve the goal of 100 miles per gallon or more ... or battery operated cars that can take us 400 miles between charges instead of 40.
Pickens isn't backing a Presidential candidate -- yet. That shoe may drop shortly. Is McCain signed on to the Pickens' Plan? Obama? The Pickens' Plan may play a significant role in the outcome of the '08 election for President...