Pickens' Project Is In The Wind

Wind baron T. Boone Pickens is back on the drawing boards with his plan for a massive wind farm in the Texas panhandle.  The Dallas Morning News:

T. Boone Pickens' plan to build the world's largest wind farm is off.

Instead, Pickens said he will build five or six smaller wind farms, in the Midwest and possibly Texas, though he hasn't settled on locations.

Last year, Pickens announced that he would build a 1,000-megawatt wind farm in Pampa, Texas. The problem a lack of a transmission line to bring the juice to population centers, Pickens said in an interview last week.

"I don't think the first place we build, though, is where we thought we would because we don't have the transmission," he said.

Remember that idea he had to build his own transmission line? "It was a little more complicated than we thought," he said.

The NY Times has this:

Over the near term, Mr. Pickens instead plans to build three or four smaller wind farms, at a cost of some $2 billion. He said that he was unsure whether he would ever revive the giant wind project in the Texas Panhandle that has been on the drawing board for years.

“I think at this point anything’s possible,” he told The Times in an interview.

Mr. Pickens cited several factors that caused him to alter his plans, including lack of transmission lines and a fall-off in the price of natural gas, with which wind competes as a power source. The project was also hurt by the financial turmoil that has stymied activity across the once-popular renewable energy industry. “Everything kind of slowed us down,” Mr. Pickens said.

Bizarre.  Given the new Administration's commitment to alternative renewable energy I would have guessed that some of these problems would be resolved - if Obama is with him, who will stand against him?

Comments

[matt]

I guess T Boone is sucking wind now...

[Ken Hahn]

Alternative energy is always more complicated and expensive than expected.

[Jack is Back!]

"Where they call the wind Mariah" is pretty desolate country and you have to run new high voltage (345 to 500kv) lines and they ain't cheap especially when you put in the switchyards and such. In fact, depending on the length and inter-tie connections, the lines could be equal cost to the generators. And to think crap and trade hang in the balance of such projects being demonstrated as equal to the baseline capacity of coal and nuclear. What a dream - did he get it from his Kenyan father, I wonder?

[Pagar]

" In fact, depending on the length and inter-tie connections, the lines could be equal cost to the generators."

Wouldn't the average business take this into consideration when doing the initial planning?

[GMax]

Well when Pickens got out his trusty pencil and sharpened the point, the massive wind farm was not a money winner. That is the bottom line here, if T Boone could make money doing this, he was fine to be buddy buddy with the Democrats. But making a contribution to a green cause out of his own pile of chips, aint ever happenin. He will give it Oklahoma State U first.

[Jimmy'sAttackRabbit]

Alternative energy is more complicated and expensive because it is a boondoggle.

[GMax]

I heard it said many times, it takes more money to conserve electricity than it does generate the same amount. Only in a bizarro Democrat run world, would you try to use the inefficient means of capital to make energy usage more efficient.

[Ignatz]

--The project was also hurt by the financial turmoil that has stymied activity across the once-popular renewable energy industry.--

When the play money dries up all sorts of dumb ass "investments" do as well.

[Pofarmer]

Hey, GMax, did you see the article that I posted the other day where MO is actually charging more for power to fund it's energy "conservation" measures?

You know what forced conservation is, right?

Rationing.

[PeterUK]

"The answer my friend ain't blowing in the wind".

[PeterUK]

Pofarmer,

"You know what forced conservation is, right?

Rationing."

Which will work right up to the time the class actions for deaths from either the heating or the airconditioning being restricted.

[K]

Wind technology is not cutting edge science. It is an improving technology with uncertain costs. So nail down those costs and we will know what to do.

It is hard to know exactly what made Pickens stop. But one way or another it was money. Boone found out it was going to cost him too much.

translation: politicians couldn't get much money and/or cooperation in Washington.

Gee, you would expect Obama's DOE and the Treasury would provide plenty of help to the two staunch GOP Senators from Texas.

The EU and China are building some very big wind farms. Soon their experiences and costs will be clear and we can decide whether to make a major national investment in wind.

Four years from now the equipment will have improved and we will get more for our money. Or spend it on a better energy source.

[verner]

As we've been saying all along. It ain't about energy conservation and independence. It's about taking away people's money, and controlling their behavior and lives.

Too bad T. Boone didn't figure that one out.

[PeterUK]

"The EU and China are building some very big wind farms. Soon their experiences and costs will be clear and we can decide whether to make a major national investment in wind."

The EU are chasing the chimera of carbon emission reduction. Wind farming is just one of the ways the EU has chosen to do this. The only way these latterday Martian war machines can be financed is through subsidies. In the UK,companies with a Renewables Obligation Certificate are given money from a fund financed by a levy on utility bills.
As long as any electricity comes out of these monstrosities,the landscape will stay looking like War of the Worlds.

[MayBee]

Maybe Pickens is hoping the government will either buy the windmills from him,or install the transmission lines for him.

Thinking outside the box...perhaps it would be cheaper to move the people closer to the wind farms.

[MayBee]

We will most certainly not get a clear idea of experiences and costs from China. They'll report whatever they want reported.

[Pofarmer]

Wind technology is not cutting edge science. It is an improving technology with uncertain costs. So nail down those costs and we will know what to do.

Wind energy currently costs about 4 times as much as conventional. There's nothing to indicate that changing. Incremental increases in efficiency aren't going to change the fact that the wind is a crappy resource to try to exploit. If it weren't, there would still be sailing ships, and we wouldn't have quit using windpower, for the most part, in the 1800's.

[Pofarmer]

Thinking outside the box...perhaps it would be cheaper to move the people closer to the wind farms.

It would be much cheaper to generate the power closer to the people.

[MayBee]

I was kidding, po.

[Pofarmer]

Which will work right up to the time the class actions for deaths from either the heating or the airconditioning being restricted.

A class action lawsuit against an entity with unlimited funds and absolutely bristling with Lawyers. That sounds-interesting.

[Frau Atomkraft]

Pickens has/had a coordinated scheme, er, plan to pump up water in western TX and sell it to Dallas.

Popular Mechanics (July 2008):
Pickens is in the planning stages of a $1.5 billion initiative to pump billions of gallons of water from an ancient aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and build pipelines to ship them to thirsty cities such as Dallas. So far, no city has taken up his water company, Mesa Water, on the offer. But company officials and experts agree that a continuation of the drought impacting large portions of the United States could turn Pickens into something of a water baron. His yet-to-be-built pipeline would follow the same 250-mile corridor as electric lines carrying power from his wind farms. Pickens prompted the creation of a public water supply district, run by his employees, that can claim private land for the pipeline route through eminent domain.

[jwest]

The energy conservation mindset is so prevalent that it’s hard to get people to even imagine what the economy could be like if we had the surplus electricity that could be produced by 2 trillion dollars worth of nuclear plants.

Eliminating the political and legal roadblocks and using the overnight costs reduced by the efficiency of building 600 to 800 identical reactors, a new era of innovation and productivity would rival the industrial revolution or the digital age.

Stimulus? The country would be awash in new industry and jobs.

Instead, we are stuck with community organizer promoting solar panels on ghetto rooftops.

(sigh)…..

[Old Lurker]

I repeat a suspicion I made on yesterday's thread. Pickens owns more Natural Gas rights than God. Natural Gas at $3.41 today vs $13 last summer is somewhere, somehow behind Picken's decisions to launsh and then to cancel the Wind play.

[Old Lurker]

No, others have guessed at how wind links to gas, and I haven't read convincing logic behind the connection, but others as I recall were fueling the suspicion of how the two were linked last summer when the wind farm plan was announced. Then again, maybe he really was a late blooming environmentalist. Would have been fun to watch.

[PeterUK]

"A class action lawsuit against an entity with unlimited funds and absolutely bristling with Lawyers. That sounds-interesting."

The entity will be broke by then. Obama's collectivisation of the Kulaks could work out the same as last time.

[PeterUK]

OT
Obama - Terrorists to have Constitutional Rights. Despite the Constitution being against Sharia law.Ignoring the fact the the terrorists despise the country of which Obama is president and everything it stands for.

[Jack is Back!]

According to news reports, Clarice's Ibama referred to what a good deal we got from the Ruskies on Alaska. Yeah, if it hadn't been for the Ruskies, we wouldn't have Sarah to drivel about, now would we. Of course, this is the same guy who just wowed them in Moscow. What an idiot.

[Strawman Cometh]

Jwest,
Yes. Po and I mentioned this briefly on another thread. Particularly, we need to get behind Molten Salt Thorium Reactors. They operate at low pressure and are thus are safer, less expensive and can be built quicker. They can also "burn" the waste of conventional reactors.

[PDinDetroit]

Meanwhile, the Gov't that claims not to want to run GM & Chrysler is at it again! Who whudda thunk it?

LUN

[Strawman Cometh]

"Republican Senator John McCain questioned the Justice Department official's view, saying he was surprised to hear that terror suspects at Guantanamo, the US naval base in southern Cuba where 229 "war on terror" detainees remain, enjoyed constitutional protections.
"I did not know, nor know, of any time in American history where enemy combatants were given rights under the United States Constitution," McCain said.

Yeah, Johnny Mac, thanks again for running a weak campaign and demonizing Gitmo

[Strawman Cometh]

re:wind and gas, if you are going to use wind power to provide base power, you need something else to provide the power when the wind doesn't blow. Gas turbines are used as peaker plants at Altamont Pass Wind Farm.

[Strawman Cometh]

And if gas is that cheap, adding the expense of the wind turbines to the project doesn't make sense economically, but does politically.

[PeterUK]

"re:wind and gas,"

Avoid onions,guinness and beans.

[peter]

The energy conservation mindset is so prevalent that it’s hard to get people to even imagine what the economy could be like if we had the surplus electricity that could be produced by 2 trillion dollars worth of nuclear plants.

Eliminating the political and legal roadblocks and using the overnight costs reduced by the efficiency of building 600 to 800 identical reactors, a new era of innovation and productivity would rival the industrial revolution or the digital age.

Stimulus? The country would be awash in new industry and jobs.

Instead, we are stuck with community organizer promoting solar panels on ghetto rooftops.

(sigh)…..

Post of the Day.

[daddy]

I think Buffet should hire nutty environmental artist Christo.

Remember ">http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/wr.shtml"> Wrapped Reichstag?. ">http://www.nyc.gov/html/thegates/images/photos/03_valley_curtain.jpg"> Colorado Curtain? And of course everbody's favorite ">http://www.nyc.gov/html/thegates/images/photos/06_surrounded_islands.jpg"> Pink Bib's for islands?

Simply take those hundreds of expensive, unwieldy wind turbines, paint 'em mauve, and stand back and watch the avante garde master at his work.

Sure they may be useless at creating energy, but that's because you muddle-headed flyover's only know about real energy. I'm talking "Artistique' Energy", the positive synergy energy that allows one to blow zillions of dollars in pointless, stupid exercises, wins one an interview with faux-cerebral Charlies Rose, and allows 2 months worth of Sylvia's intellectuals to use phrases like "gestalt altering" and "modes of alienation."

I suggest Christo use Megan Fox's untattoed bod to tattoo on his blueprints for the project, which while decreasing the value of her body in flyover-land, will increase the value of the same in Manhattan and Paris, and maybe when she's dead she can auction off her carcass at Sotheby's. ("Do I hear a trillion? Going once, going twice...")

Personally though I wish they'd just take the damn things, stick 'em in 2 parallel rows in a river in Alaska like those half buried Chevrolet's, slap a driving surface between them, and call it a Bridge To Nowhere. A shovel ready project!

[Ignatz]

--No, others have guessed at how wind links to gas, and I haven't read convincing logic behind the connection, but others as I recall were fueling the suspicion of how the two were linked last summer when the wind farm plan was announced.--

OL,
The CA experience may be helpful. We stopped building real power plants and instead built stupid, ugly wind farms and solar boondoggles and bought power from out of state where they still do build real power plants.
When the inevitable demand curve crossing of the supply curve occurred and we began experiencing massive shortages the only near term solution was gas power plants. They're quick to erect, don't need much water or permitting and the enviros endorse them as the least bad conventional power source. And best of all for Boone, they use titanic quanitites of gas.

[Pofarmer]

stick 'em in 2 parallel rows in a river in Alaska like those half buried Chevrolet's, slap a driving surface between them, and call it a Bridge To Nowhere.

This waste really does make the Ketchican bridge look tame, doesn't it?

[narciso]

Like I said It's like we're in a "bearded spock universe", the standard bearer of our party, now comes to the realization, that his wingman, who was forced out of office, in order to avoid bankruptcy,came to months ago. She was right on that, on defense of our troops, on energy, seems sensible on health care, knew that Georgia should be supported and not shunned, doesn't think there was a 'debate' with clubs and MP-5s in Iran. Of Joe Biden, are we on Candid Camera, heck no we didn't dodge a bullet with this guy.

, We have a Governor in Columbia, who can't be pulled out of the Capitol with a crowbar
even though Tango instructor in Buenos Aires
seems to be his dream job. We have the 'brilliant' incumbent basically inviting Putin to take the state back. It will likely be Gen. Nagovitsyn, I'm sure Gaz Prom's rates on gasoline will be quite reasonable.

[PD]

Greetings from Cincinnati. Just got to the hotel, pulled out the laptop, and checked Rasmussen to find the good news of -5, a new low. :-)

[bio mom]

Newsmax posts that Rove testified under oath before representatives of the house judiciary committee yesterday from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. with a few breaks.About the fired attorneys apparently.

[clarice]

Heh, Daddy--that's about tie with this goody from greg Gutfeld:
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/07/08/daily-gut-america-ranks-114th-on-the-happy-planet-index/>Eco freaks

[Dave (in MA)]

They could mount one of them in front of whatever podium Joe Plughead is yammering at on any given day and power most of Capitol Hill.

[bad]

Texas wind power Feb. 28, 2008:

Texas, a model of wind power’s potential, now is a model of wind power’s pitfalls too.

Minders of the Lone Star State’s electricity grid had to cut power to some offices and factories Wednesday evening when the wind dropped—and with it, electricity produced from the state’s many wind farms. The green juice slowed from 1,700 megawatts to the trickle of 300 megawatts.

LUN

[PeterUK]

You Americans might be able to do waste on a bigger scale,but we have style.

[Frau Atomkraft]

"re:wind and gas,"
"Avoid onions,guinness and beans."

Well, there goes dinner. Thanks for the reminder.

[bad]

Michelle is trying to poison people:

...an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot - whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead.

That explains a lot...

LUN

[matt]

latest Department of Energy news release"

"hear ye hear ye...yon olde windmill shall be grinding millet 'pon sunrise. Thou shalt not grinde wheat nor oats, but only millet....Thee peasantry shall form line in an orderly fashion for their tun of chaffbread..all hail The One!"

signede;

T. Boone Pickense
Master of the Chamberpote

[royf]

OT sorry but I thought some might find this amusing>

New Ann Coulter column is on Sarah Palin and the liberals obsession with her.

LUN

[MayBee]

Oh, that is way too fabulous, bad.

[Neo]

35 years ago they started to build a nuclear plant near me, but they got it right .. they built the transmission towers before they announced the plant.

[bad]

Maybee, how much do you think it will cost to test all of those school children for lead exposure?

Why wasn't soil testing done prior to planting, harvesting and eating?

[GMax]

OL when the wind dont blow, ya got to run the power plants with something. That something is nat gas. And lots of it. And now you know why that OSU alum is grinning in those commercials like that. Google Mesa Energy and look at the holdings.

[daddy]

"..an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot - - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead.'

Probably ">http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/history/2009/02/11/abraham-lincoln-a-technology-leader-of-his-time.html"> Abe Lincoln's fault.

"Despite his popular image as a log-splitting bumpkin and small-time country lawyer, Lincoln had an avid interest in cutting-edge technology. He encouraged weapons development and even tested some new rifles himself on the White House lawn."

Oh, if only he'd gone to Harvard.

[BobS]

I sure miss those heady days of drill baby drill. Too bad Larry Kudlow decided to not rum for Senate. Think of Dobb trying to debate Kudlow on economics....think
Palin over Biden

[bad]

Daddy, I blame the blacksmith....

[danoso]

I must be missing something fundamental in the entire wind power debate.

The reason you need a massive distribution system for the more convential systems (coal-fired plants, nuclear, etc) is because power is generated at a single location and must be distributed from there.

Wind (and solar for that matter) are diffuse sources of energy - there sort of everywhere to be harnessed. There no need to concentrate all your generation in a single location, and then distribute from there. Placing a relative small number of windmills at various locations throughout the midwest at near existing transmission facilities (and tapping into the existing infrastructure) would seem to take advantage of the one thing wind does seem to have going for -- you can place it pretty much anywhere.

[Ralph L]

The lead probably came from careless paint scraping in previous decades.

Those were half-buried Cadillacs showing off their tailfins.

Trying to post on Firefox gives a "sorry, we cannot accept this data" message. Has this happened to anyone else?

[MayBee]

Heh, Daddy.

Ralph L- usually you can just refresh and repost, and typepad will reconsider.

[daddy]

I">http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220">I stand corrected Ralph L, (and ashamed:(

[Ranger]

danoso,

You've missed the point of the entire "renewable energy" scam. You are thinking this is about actually producing renewable energy. It's really about filling the pockets of the politically well connected at the exspence of the middle class.

The configuration you are thinking of might empower local small entrepenours. We can't have that.

Also, remeber that a big part of Picken's plan was a transition to electricly power cars, but since "the technology isn't there yet," we'd all have to use cars powered by natural gas until the fully electic cars come on line. That's a great plan if you already own the natural gas reserves.

[PeterUK]

"whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead."

If they will put the vegetable patch on the plot where the Clinton gang buried the bodies.

[centralcal]

Hey gang - I am still at work, but I just now saw this at the Wall Street Journal (red banner - BREAKING NEWS):

"CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told lawmakers CIA officials have misled Congress since 2001."

What is Panetta up to now?

[PeterUK]

Kim Jong ill.

[Ranger]

What is Panetta up to now?

Posted by: centralcal | July 08, 2009 at 07:22 PM

Well, with Obama's numbers tanking with independents, and the left's heads' exploding over the fact that the administration just siad it will keep some detainees indefinately, even if they are aquited in civilian court, I guess they fingured they needed something to try and rally the base.

[Dave in OC]

Way OT but did you know that Sarah Palin is stepping down because she killed MJ?

Back On Topic, I always thought Pickens Plan was way goofy. The idea was to use wind for Volts and Natural Gas for cars. It seems to be impossible to get real numbers as the watermelons use carp like "30% cheaper than gasoline" or "if gasoline costs $20 CNG is $12.50." That sounds like today's market huh?

I think I know what's up with Pickens (no offense to those his age!). Laura Ingraham described running into him within the past year or so and he sounded like he needed something to do now that he was 80.

This was a dumb idea from the get go.

[DrJ]

Melinda,

Time to talk about lead trumpet players yet?

[Dave in OC]

Drat, forgot the link. I'm gonna study hard soon to embed...

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2009/07/sharpton-caller-links-sarah-palin.html

[C'mon, admit it; the CIA was ambiguous about WMD.]

Hearsay. It's six Democrats saying that's what Panetta said. God only knows what the meaning of it all is, because I guarantee that neither Congress, nor Panetta, nor even CIA spokesmen are sure what's been going on at the CIA.

[Pofarmer]

Placing a relative small number of windmills at various locations throughout the midwest at near existing transmission facilities (and tapping into the existing infrastructure) .

Except, the best places for wind generation are generally out in the boonies, in other words, away from existing infrastructure. And, when you tie more windpower into a smaller grid, it destabilizes the grid even more than if it's hooked into a large grid.

would seem to take advantage of the one thing wind does seem to have going for -- you can place it pretty much anywhere

See above. There really aren't all that many area's that coincide with decent generation potential coupled with being close to population centers. The more you fudge with the siting, the worse the economics of the windmills, with "worse" being subjective, of course,because they're already pretty terrible. The main thing I'm worried about is how we're gonna get rid of the million pounds of concrete at the base of each one when the whole scam goes belly up.

[Extraneus]

Thanks for the Coulter link, royf. I liked this part.

The peculiarly venomous hatred of Palin is driven by women of the left and their whipped consorts. All that needs to happen is for a feminist to overhear two Nation readers saying, "I hate to admit it, but Palin is kind of hot" and ...

WHAT??????????? YOU CALL THAT HOT? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW WE'VE GOT A MEGA-SUPER HOTTIE IN DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. AND NEED I REMIND YOU AGAIN OF THE RAW SEX APPEAL OF RACHEL MADDOW?

Democrats are a party of women, and nothing drives them off their gourds like a beautiful Christian conservative. (How much money has that other beautiful born-again, Carrie Prejean, been forced to spend on lawyers to respond to liberal hysteria?)

[Dave in OC]

Po,

I think two of the few useful windfarms are here in CA, one is in the Tehachapi Pass near Bakersfield and another in San Gorgonio near Palm Springs. I believe they were able to tap into the grid fairly easily, which is probably why they are over 20 years old. They still don't make electricity cheap enough to be competitive but the latter is probably why Sonny's widow Mary Bono Mack voted for crap and tax. Interestingly her now husband Connie Mack IV voted against.

[MayBee]

Panetta was probably referring to what Plame told Congress.

[Parking Lot]

Matt

LOL!!!!!

[Extraneus]

Hm, I hadn't ever run across Ms. Wasserman Schultz until Ann Coulter mentioned her...

Kind of a close call between her and Rachael Maddow, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing.

[Jane]

Newsmax posts that Rove testified under oath before representatives of the house judiciary committee yesterday from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. with a few breaks

He is supposed to be cruising the Mediterranean.
It's a damn good thinkI didn't go, I'd be demanding my money back.

[Dave in OC]

That didn't make much sense. Mulligan. I think Mary Bono Mack voted for crap and tax because she has a humongous windfarm in her district or backyard and probably has links to the local operators and/or SCE.

Further review shows that it was a slam dunk to connect to the main lines from Palo Verde Nuke in AZ to the LA grid.

[MayBee]

I think Mary Bono Mack voted for crap and tax because she has a humongous windfarm in her district or backyard and probably has links to the local operators and/or SCE.

That does make sense.
I didn't realize that was her district.

[Parking Lot]

royf

((New Ann Coulter column is on Sarah Palin and the liberals obsession with her.))

ty for the link to the Coulter article. As usual she was lol witty ...

I'm sure no one understands SP better AC who has similarly been the target of frenzied lefty malice

[Sooner, or later, this issue is going to grow.]

This is amusing; after months of posting that Obama was born at Queen's Medical Center in Hawai'i, so-called mythbuster site Snopes.com has switched to naming Kapi'olani Hospital as the birthplace. Of course, they don't show definitive documentation either.

[Jane]

I hadn't ever run across Ms. Wasserman Schultz

She is wretched.

[Old Lurker]

Strawman, Ignatz and Gmax all get the brass ring for the link between wind and gas. The connection some bloggers suggested was that because wind is unreliable, some quantity approaching a 1:1 backup from traditional sources is required. Gas fired turbines are an easy way to fuel the backups. So more wind farms = more gas fired plants = more demand for Natural Gas = higher prices for same = higher returns for rights already owned. Ditto the flip side urging of more Natural Gas fired vehicles he pushed.

Or maybe it is to save the planet.

[Dave in OC]

Yeah, I was bummed but maybe it would have been local suicide to vote against. Sonny was pretty conservative but she is moderate but usually a dependable R.

Funny short personal story. I used to work with a family member of hers and I could say I was only 2 degrees from Sonny (or is it 1?). Now I can say I was/am 1 degree from her as she got elected to the seat before her FM and I went to different companies. (Sonny met her when she was a waitress while going to USC I believe.)

[glasater]

60 Minutes on T Boone Pickens-October 2008

The steep drop in oil and gas prices since July has cut the value of Pickens' hedge fund in half. Among those who've suffered: his alma mater, OSU, which has lost about $100 million of investments the school made with money Pickens had donated and then managed in his hedge fund. Overall, Pickens and BP Capital are down a staggering $2 billion.

The show transcript talks about the wind turbines also.

[He bought 687 of those dinosaurs. Chortle.]

We all love T-Bone for calling Kerry's bluff, but he should have called Gore's bluff instead.

[Dave in OC]

OL,

I think it was pretty obvious that Pickens didn't turn into a watermelon all of a sudden. Of course I still don't know why someone with a personal wealth of up to $3B is doing with a stupid long term thing like this at 81. Maybe my "he's bored" covers it.

I guess we better hope Rupert stays healthy for at least another election cycle or we'll have CNN2 where Fox News used to be...

[clarice]

Maybe he figures it was worth every penny to show how stupid the notion of generating lots of energy with wind it.

Sen Byrd, still on sick leave, annnounced his opposition to Cap and Trade, saying he believes in clean coal.

If the UMWA members weren't dunces, they'd be ratting the hq doors right now furious at their union's leaders who endorsed Ibama and told them not to believe the reports that he planned to destroy the coal industry,

[matt]

I think you will all enjoy my latest post/image...tongue partially in cheek, of course....

If Shepard Fairey can get his poster into the National Portrait Gallery by ripping off socialist realist images and iconography, I figured turnabout is fair play. The fun part is that there are hundreds of images that can be used, most of which are quite easy to adapt, boys and girls.Remember what McLuhan said.

LUN

[joycekane]

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[Pagar]

Think you might escape the carp and traders forcing you to rehab your home if you don't plan to sell?

Here's what the Democrats have planned for you. The program requires that states label their buildings so that we can all know how efficient every building (that includes residential and non-residential buildings) is and it requires that the information be made public. To that end, the bill suggests a number of circumstances under which the states could inspect a building, including:

(vi) a change in ownership or operation of the building for purposes of utility billing; or

A divorce, or loss of a spouse could trigger an enengy audit that could force you to spend thousands to rehab.

[Alexandra Weit]

I live in windmill country near Palm Springs, CA, where the 4,000+/- turbines [565 MW installed capacity] only generate 100+/- MW per year, intermittently of which only 5-6 MW are generated at peak need time. The wind is only good enough for them to generate 14-20% of rated capacity. You can't even toast your bread without "backup" power. That's where the gas comes in. But, they generate so little it's a joke. Edison uses 13,000 MW per year. In fact, wind power is a duplication of power the utilities already have to have available,to avert blackouts. The whole thing is a scam and the only green transmission are the $'s out of the rate and taxpayers pockets into the developers and politicians. I have WE production records from Edison. Anyone interested in getting them, email me at bobweit@msn.com.

[Extraneus]

Sasha?

[Extraneus]

Iowahawk: Fans Flock to Mourn California, 1849-2009

LOS ANGELES - Millions of fans from around the globe gathered along Sunset Boulevard to pay final respects to California today

[Daddy]

OT on the Global Warming Front:

Anybody see ">http://www.nypost.com/seven/07082009/news/regionalnews/snow_plows_remove_hail_after_summer_stor_178218.htm"> this story from today's NY POst about 2 inches of snow falling yesterday in a freak storm in Yonkers? Is this a joke?

[centralcal]

Okay, as a taxpayer I have some questions about the entourage that is accompanying the Obama clan on its G8 trip.

First we have the first daughter on Drudge in her peacenik teeshirt with some guy who is "comfortably" dressed to say the least.

Then, in the PuffHo slide show there is a woman (not the grandmother) in a chartreuse washed linen thingy (scroll through the photos for the group photo touring Italy).

Who are these people?

[Daddy]

I know that the Gershwin's wrote:

"Who cares what banks fail in Yonker's
As long as you've got a kiss that conquors?"

but I don't remember the next line being:

"Who cares what snow falls in Yonkers in Summer,
Lets pass Cap and Trade, ain't Global Warmin' a bummer."

Maybe that was from Summertime:

"Summertime, and the buroughs are freezing, Polar Bears are a jumping, and the snow plows are nigh..."

I thought so.

[BobS]

biomom: These political prosecutions will continue until the GOP hits back again. Say, an investigation of Michelle's job at the hospital after hubby's earmark. A similar prosecution of a GOP state speaker, Ray Sansom, is underway in Florida for something so atonishingly parallel it would even give demleftdom pause. It should come as no surprise that Charlie Crist has thrown Sansom under the bus.

[PD]

HuffPo is definitely covering the hard news for us.

Michelle Obama, Family Change Clothes Mid-Flight: MOSCOW MAKEOVER!

The sheer talent of those first family folks. In mid-flight!

[BobS]

PD: that sounds like some of that breathless Menendez brother coverage we used to get.

[BB Key]

Bobby Rush TV somebody needs to make a continuous loop of this Financial Services Hearing today with a crawl "this is the only person to defeat Obama in an election."
Thanks John McCain!

[BobS]

I guess it shows how that district is as Obama loses to a former Black Panther.