Pickens Plans to Steal Property for Windfarm

Not only is Pseudo-Capitalist T. Boone Pickens trying to pick the pockets of American taxpayers with his phony plan, he's now convinced the Texas legislature to give him the power of eminent domain by granting him his own fiefdom, with Pickens and his wife as King and Queen.

"Simply put, Pickens’ pitch is “embrace wind power to help break
our ‘addiction’ to foreign oil.” There is, however, another intriguing component
to Pickens’ plan that
goes unmentioned in his TV commercials, media interviews and web site -- water
rights, which he owns more of than any other American...

At Pickens’ behest, the Texas legislature changed state
law to allow the two residents of an 8-acre parcel of land in Roberts County to
vote to create a municipal water district, a government agency with eminent
domain powers. Who were the voters? They were Pickens’ wife and the manager of Pickens’ nearby
ranch. And who sits on the board of directors of this water district?
They are the parcel’s three other non-resident landowners, all Pickens’ employees.

What’s this got to do with Pickens’ wind-power plan? Just as he needs pipelines
to sell his water, he also needs transmission lines to sell his wind-generated
power. Rights of way for transmission lines are also acquired through eminent
domain -- and, once again, the Texas legislature has come to Pickens’ aid.

Earlier this year, Texas changed its law to allow renewable energy
projects (like Pickens’ wind farm) to obtain rights-of-way by
piggybacking on a water district’s eminent domain power. So Pickens can now use his
water district’s authority to also condemn land for his future wind farm’s
transmission lines."

Congress Moves to Do Nothing on Oil

First it was the Oil company profits, then it was OPEC. Speculators are the latest scapegoat offered to the ignorant masses in order to cover up congress' incompetence and cowardice.

On Tuesday, Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, called that "excessive, relentless speculation."
In 2000, 37 percent of the people in the oil futures market were speculators, Dorgan said. Now, speculators make up 71 percent of the market.
"They've broken the market," Dorgan said.

The fact that more investors are participating in the market has nothing to do with the current price spike. If anything, it reflects increasing investor recognition of underlying supply and demand issues economic idiots like Dorgan continue to ignore. Futures speculators can make just as much money betting the market will go down as up. Additionally, the purchase of a contract requires a seller. That seller is obviously standing pat on the current price. Further, the fact that most of the new money in oil futures is coming from pension funds and other large investment pools is obviously lost on congressional demagogues.

Harry Reid complains about Republicans coming to their senses:

"Forty-seven different Republican senators have spoken at one time or another on the need to do something about speculation," Reid said. "That was before they heard from the oil companies, and I guess some people on Wall Street.
"Now, suddenly, they don't think speculation's a big deal."


The Horror! You mean Republicans listened to the people who actually do this for a living? How dare they? Don't they understand that facts get in the way of Democrats no growth Euro-Socialist agenda?

One of things Republicans heard was this:

"Yes, speculation is a big deal, said Sen. John Ensign, a Republican from Nevada, but he warned that curbing speculation in the United States could mean that foreign markets will take over."

That's right. Democrats either don't understand or don't care that oil is traded on futures markets throughout the world and that hamstringing American trading will just chase capital to friendlier places.

Then we have the venal T. Boone Pickens mucking up the conversation with his dishonest promotion of wind power that is really designed to protect and expand the publicly funded subsidies and tax breaks for his huge investment in that technology.

Another Senate panel heard Tuesday from Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens. He warned lawmakers that the smart response to the oil price shock is not to drill more, but to expand solar and wind power.

And when congress listens to a real expert and economist like Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, they just stick their fingers in their ears and shout "la la la":

Bernanke: Another concern that has been raised is that financial speculation has added markedly to upward pressures on oil prices. Certainly, investor interest in oil and other commodities has increased substantially of late. However, if financial speculation were pushing oil prices above the levels consistent with the fundamentals of supply and demand, we would expect inventories of crude oil and petroleum products to increase as supply rose and demand fell. But in fact, available data on oil inventories show notable declines over the past year.

Then a Democrat asks for advice he can ignore:

Question from Senator Tom Carper (D-DE): "The third factor that we keep coming back to is the role that speculation is playing. We've touched on this at least indirectly here today. Just give us some advice. I think we're going to debate -- seriously debate, probably before the beginning of next month, legislation dealing with speculation to try to curb the excesses that may be occurring there. If you could give us some advice, it would be timely and much appreciated."

Bernanke:

Well, I think, as I said, based on the evidence that's available, I would not estimate that speculation or particularly manipulation is a significant part of the rise in oil prices. That said, the CFTC and others are looking at the data and trying to evaluate that. These are very difficult matters. We don't want to do anything that will stop the futures markets from having their legitimate functions, serving their legitimate functions of providing liquidity and hedging.
So, you know, my advice would be to go slow and carefully and to take the insights that you get from the CFTC and others who are directly -- associated directly overseeing these activities. I would -- despite the concerns -- and I fully understand the concerns about high gas prices -- I don't think it's likely that you can have a big effect on gas prices with short-term moves in the futures markets. And I would urge careful and deliberate action in this area.

Mel Martinez, the feckless and pusillanimous GOP Senator from my state obviously doesn't like what he's hearing. So he'll rephrase the question, hoping for a different answer:

And a question from Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL): "I wonder if you might dwell just for a moment on the speculation side as to why you don't see that as a fundamental part of the problem, but then also what we could do to be more helpful in the area of transparency and oversight."

Bernanke:
Well, there would be -- there are a number of pieces of evidence against the view that speculation is a primary force. I mention in my testimony the absence of hoarding or inventories that you would expect to see if speculation was driving prices above the supply/demand equilibrium. There are a number of studies which show that there is little or no connection between the open interest taken by noncommercial traders in futures markets and the movement -- subsequent movements in prices. It's also interesting to note that there are many commodities, or at least some commodities, that are not even traded on futures markets, like iron ore, for example, which have had very large increases in prices. So I think the evidence is terribly weak.

In short, we have a corrupt, incompetent and craven congress holding the future of our economy and national security in their hands, doing everything in their power to stand in the way of the people's economic and political needs and desires. They can try to place blame wherever they want, but they and the thinking American public know exactly where it belongs.

Picksenplan: Just Passing Wind

In the shamelessness department, T. Boone Pickens is trying save his massive investment in a Texas wind farm with a nationwide sales pitch designed to get his subsidies reinstated. Steven Milloy over at Junk Science blows down Pickens and the wind power fairy tale. No telling if anyone is listening to Pickens, but this rank opportunist disguised as a capitalist must stand to lose big bucks with such an obvious and very public act of self-service.

"The federal government currently subsidizes wind farm operators with a tax
credit worth 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour -- potentially making for a tidy annual
taxpayer gift to Pickens based on his anticipated capacity.

But all is not well in Wind Subsidy-land.

Since Congress didn't renew the wind subsidy as part of the 2007 energy
bill, it will expire at the end of this year unless reauthorized.

Subsidies are perhaps more important to the wind industry that wind
itself. Without them, wind can't compete against fossil fuel-generated power. As
pointed out by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (July 9), "In 1999, 2001 and
2003, when Congress temporarily killed the credits, the number of new turbines
dropped dramatically."

It's little wonder that Pickens is waging a $58 million PR campaign to
promote his plan. If it works, his short-term gain will be saving the tax credit
and his wind farm investment. In the long-term, he stands to line his already
overflowing pockets with hard-earned taxpayer dollars. "