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."

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. "

Democrats raise gas prices

The march of economic stupidity continues as congress voted to raise taxes on the evil oil companies, which is of course a tax increase on every American. Corporations don't pay taxes. In the end, individual americans pay every tax. “Gasoline at the pump has gone up 75 cents, 75 cents since we first took up this legislation,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a speech supporting the bill. “Imagine what that means to a household income.” And now it will go up even more thanks to her. She also went on with the usual crapola over "record profits", and relied that we are as ignorant of the difference between profit and profit margin as she is. Thankfully, GW has promised to veto this nonsense.