Tag Team: T. Boone Pickens and Ted Turner

Oligarch T. Boone Pickens, who has tons of natural gas and windmills, along with Ted Turner, who has never seen a government intervention he doesn't like, have a joint WSJ Op-Ed out today.

They are calling for guess what? Government intervention to bail out T. Boone's natural gas and windmills. The duo write:

Long-term economic and environmental interests compel us to put a priority on energy independence and a price on carbon pollution. Natural gas and renewable energy are obvious sources for cheap, clean and reliable electric power and transportation fuels...

New coal plants should be required to combine natural gas with the coal they burn, resulting in cleaner emissions, and every power plant should meet strict carbon-emissions standards.

We should also adopt a strong national standard requiring that electrical generation include a growing percentage of renewable fuels to help bring down costs over time, and ensure America's place in the burgeoning global competition for innovative renewable and efficiency technologies. Numerous state initiatives have already demonstrated the feasibility of these standards on a smaller scale.

In the transportation sector, renewable energy and natural gas can also be deployed immediately. For a quarter century, natural-gas vehicle technology has been available but stymied by lack of leadership. Of the 10 million natural gas vehicles in the world, fewer than 150,000 are in the U.S.

We can begin transitioning the nation's fleet of 6.5 million 18-wheelers that run regular routes...


The economic, environmental, and national security imperatives of America's energy posture are clear, as is the proven potential of domestic natural resources like gas, wind and solar power.

National security interests? Duh, if we are so concerned that Middle East oil and other non-US based energy sources won't be available in the future, wouldn't the prudent think to do be to use these energy sources while we still can, instead of using up our precious domestic resources? Hey, here's an intervention: Let's freeze T. Boone from selling any of his domestic energy, since it is so precious, until the threat T. Boone sees, i.e., the threat that foreigners stop selling energy resources to us, actually occurs. We could call it the make T. Boone a Hero Act.