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From Examiner.com:
No, it’s not the Oklahoma Thunder’s cheerleaders and the color of your barf after watching one of their games, its a question the National Journal asked its “energy experts” to comment on recently.
Our own Denise Bode, now the CEO of American Wind Energy Association, was asked to give the organizations response. Here’s an excerpt from her piece: Read more…
It’s official: the energy meltdown has exceeded the abilities of the rather mediocre abilities of the governor and legislature.
Who called BS on the Pickens/Chesapeake con jobs? The Oklahoma Political News Service!
From the Wall Street Journal:
“I’ll get it back.”
About half of the investors in T. Boone Pickens’s energy-oriented equity hedge fund have asked to withdraw their money on the heels of losses of about 60% this year, according to people close to the matter. Mr. Pickens and his investment firm have lost $2 billion since peaking in late June, Mr. Pickens said Sunday on the CBS program “60 Minutes.”
His fund, BP Capital, will have about between $400 million and $500 million after expected withdrawals. It started the year with about $2 billion. A few weeks ago, Mr. Pickens moved the fund almost entirely into cash to help ride out the volatility in the energy patch, according to people close to the matter.
Mr. Pickens is expected to personally hold about 20% of the fund after the withdrawals, or about $100 million, after he does some selling along with his investors. He has lost an estimated $400 million or so in his funds this year.
The hedge fund has been hurt by the recent plunge in energy prices and tumbles in energy stocks. Mr. Pickens wouldn’t comment. Read more…
Related:
OKPNS: When Con Artists Go Bad (10/01/08)
OKPNS: “Sold Out Tour” Start This Week (9/2/08)
OKPNS: UPDATE: We Told You So, Again and Again (8/13/08)
OKPNS: If CNG is the Answer, It Must be a Really Stupid Question! (8/12/08)
I’ve got a friend in the broadcast business that says the funniest thing in the world is a sports reporter attempting to cover a story outside of the jock world. He says it’s always an absolute riot, especially when the sports reporter inadvertently strays into the world of politics.
Well that’s what happened yesterday, in this obsequious piece in the city paper. The Oklahoman sports reporter Barry Tramal, who apparently is using the story as an audition letter for T. Boondoggle Pickens ailing hedge fund, inadvertently discovers a truth!
In this story, Pickens, who as part of his propeller farm con artistry has previously disarmed the fawning Oklahoma media by protesting that he just doesn’t care about money anymore since he has (had) so much of it:
“The Texas geologist made his fortune in the oil business. But he says he is now 80-years-old, has enough money and wants to do something for his country.” Read more…
Now T. Boone declares that he actually DOES care about money!!
“[Pickens] told OSU athletic director Mike Holder, “Now I’m getting my money’s worth.”
It’s only been a few weeks since the piers beneath Pickens phony baloney scam began to unravel: except for the Oklahoma syncophants and Kool-Aid-drinking reporters, it became clear Pickens Flim-Flam scam was more about his tanking hedge fund and less about doing it for “the children.” Even the pot-smoking hippy greenies are finally getting wise. Let’s face it: the alternative energy scam lobby is on life support.
Well, this scoop of galactic proportions has gone over the head of Tramal and his editors, but we at OKPNS caught it. So let the word go forth: T. Boonedoggle has changed his mind: he likes money, he REALLY likes it!
Related:
WSJ: Winds Shift for Renewable Energy As Oil Price Sinks, Money Gets Tight
cro·ny cap·i·tal·ism (noun)
A pejorative term describing an allegedly capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between businessmen and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, and so forth.
T. Boone Pickens’s letter of Sept. 2 says: “I believe that with private investment and proven technology, we can generate 20% of our electricity from wind within 10 years.” No one is stopping him from achieving his goal. He should proceed with his plan. He should buy or lease property, install wind turbines, build transmission lines and sell as much electricity as he can. I just don’t want him asking for government subsidies or tax breaks along the way. If he can deliver electricity from wind power more economically than coal, natural gas or nuclear power, he will be rewarded. I don’t want the government spending money subsidizing an industry which cannot sustain itself.
Nor do I want the government creating artificial demand for natural gas by mandating it be used for transportation. The price of natural gas has risen dramatically in recent years and we don’t need to artificially increase the demand for it by using it to fuel cars.
We’ve already seen how government interference in energy markets with ethanol mandates and ethanol subsidies has driven up the price of corn and other food crops.
In response to Mr. Pickens’s request for a plan, here is my plan. Let the market decide, and don’t allow special interests and the government to interfere. When electricity from wind is more economical than other sources, wind will win. Until then, I’d like to keep my electricity, fuel costs and taxes as low as possible.
Dan Agan
Houston
Mr. Pickens’s energy plan is incomplete without mention of California’s Altamont Pass Wind Farm. During its long lifetime it has killed some 100 eagles and about 1,000 other birds a year. It has been in violation of the Endangered Species Act but seems to enjoy freedom from enforcement. We are a nation of law. Mr. Pickens must address this issue in order to have a plan with meaning.
Frank Cotter
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
We’ve been documenting the beanie propellers and compressed natural gas snake oil job that T. Boone Pickens has been peddling to the American people.
In Oklahoma and Texas, he’s bought influence by giving away money he’d otherwise have to pay in taxes, thus rendering many legislative and business leaders, and of course the MSM, deaf, dumb and blind.
Other parts of the country are not so intoxicated from freshly printed money/feedlot smell that emanates from the confidence job being sold by the former greenmail pirate gone “philanthropist.”
So it seems there are two types of people who are buying Picken’s folly: those he buys and those who are idiots. Some, it seems, wouldn’t know a renewable resource from an oil field sludge pit. Read about one of those poor ignorant souls here.
All we have to say is, “Pray for America.” With the clueless leadership we’ve had, we’re going to need a lot of Divine intervention to survive.
Related:
Republican.Senate.Gov: Dems Pick Pickens To Headline Energy Summit Despite His Opposition To Their Energy Plans
Video: T. Boone Pickens: “I Say Drill, Drill, Drill”
Looks like somebody has stopped drinking the Kool-Aid!
We’ve told you about the opportunistic energy con jobs being foisted on the public by snake oil salesmen. The “wind power and natural gas will save the world” con is pretty easy to figure out if you separate the emotion from the equation, and today’s editorial in the Oklahoman of all places shows there is hope. Take note of the line about how coal must be used in the national quest for energy.
The bottom line is: if the Oklahoman can figure out the con, anybody can!