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T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

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  • T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/31785977

    Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.

    Pickens has already ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings.

    "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace."

    Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric —a $2 billion investment—a little more than a year ago. Pickens said he has leases on about 200,000 acres in Texas that were planned for the project, and he might place some of the turbines there, but he's also looking for smaller wind projects to participate in. He said he's looking at potential sites in the Midwest and Canada.

    In Texas, the problem lies in getting power from the proposed site in the Panhandle to a distribution system, Pickens said in an interview with The Associated Press in New York. He'd hoped to build his own transmission lines but he said there were technical problems.

    Wind power is a big part of the "Pickens Plan," which was announced a year ago Wednesday. Pickens has spent $60 million crisscrossing the country and buying advertising in an effort to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil.

    "It doesn't mean that wind is dead," said Pickens, who runs the Dallas-based energy investment fund BP Capital. "It just means we got a little bit too quick off the blocks."

  • #2
    Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

    Originally posted by babbittd View Post
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/31785977

    Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.
    "It doesn't mean that wind is dead," said Pickens, who runs the Dallas-based energy investment fund BP Capital. "It just means we got a little bit too quick off the blocks."
    yeh....

    shucks... i done forgot it takes $$$ to install them windmills. and in a debt deflation shitstorm credit shit fuckup well... i guess them wind critters is too many!
    what a f&cking moron.

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    • #3
      Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

      Oops there goes Obamas talking points on energy. Wind and solar blah,blah. On the bright side we do have a "100 year supply" of NG( Pickens as quoted in Fox interview yesterday).

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      • #4
        Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

        Originally posted by babbittd View Post
        "It doesn't mean that wind is dead," said Pickens, who runs the Dallas-based energy investment fund BP Capital. "It just means we got a little bit too quick off the blocks."
        This isn't an energy issue, it's a finance issue. Pickens was all in with regard to a rise in energy prices. When oil was $147 and NG $13.69 he looked like the smartest guy in the room. But, our little debt deflation episode has cost Pickens' BP Capital about $2B as his investments in energy have gotten killed over the last 12 months and outside investment has dried up.

        Not to mention that he contracted with GE for the turbines at the peak of the energy market. Renewable energy is one thing...energy, and it competes with fossil fuel. When the cost of NG has fallen almost 4X over 12 months it's not easy to justify an RE investment of this scale.

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        • #5
          Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

          The cleverly named stimulus plan of 2010 will take Boone out, buy his turbines and land leases and build the Wind Farm (then someday sell it back at pennies on the dollar to private enterprise just before it would become immensely profitable). That at least would be a productive use of taxpayer money borrowed from China.

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          • #6
            Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

            Pickens himself has said that wind is tied to the price of NG( due to it's use as an electricity producer) With LNG imports and all the domestic
            supplies of NG it wil be a while for wind to be anywhere near profitable. unless we have an energy tax which makes wind competitive or as mentioned above subsidation by uncle sam.

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            • #7
              Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

              You can also watch Pickens live on Bloombery on July 7 (ps: I cannot access the cnbc link for some reason):

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              • #8
                Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                Originally posted by Roughneck View Post
                unless we have an energy tax which makes wind competitive or as mentioned above subsidation by uncle sam.
                like the recent cap and trade legislation?

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                • #9
                  Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                  I'm always amazed when you see something like this happen. They guy is smart enough to amass a huge fortune but screws up bad on what seems to me to be something fairly simple. $2 Billion! That seems a lot more like gambling than investing to me. Couldn't afford a good study to determine best and WORST case scenarios? I think what we have here is a good example of how the brains to make it in a boom economy don't equal that required in a recession.

                  ..... or perhaps he's just old and was willing to bet it all one last score? Perhaps even with good intentions for the country. :confused:

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                  • #10
                    Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                    The problem with Pickens is that he is to much of a fundamentally oriented guy, not looking at the psychology aspect, the nature of the credit driving the "fundamentals", that sort of thing, thus ignoring the bubble aspect. Those who blindly follow the structural arguments, and then leverage up on that, almost always go broke, however it is perhaps that kind of blind faith that also enable the leverage that enables one to get rich (as long as it last).

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                    • #11
                      Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                      Because he doesn't really have an audited record, it's hard to tell how good he really is. It's quite possible he made one big decision in his career, and everything after that was at least OK (with the market), so he did very well. Luck/probability plays a part in everything.

                      I am guessing the guy is pretty smart, but not as smart as he thinks he is. He tried to have a big idea, but looks like a mid-19th century railroad investor: good idea, but VERY bad business timing.

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                      • #12
                        Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                        Originally posted by yernamehear View Post
                        I am guessing the guy is pretty smart, but not as smart as he thinks he is. He tried to have a big idea, but looks like a mid-19th century railroad investor: good idea, but VERY bad business timing.
                        Or the last time we had an economy like this he was only a year old?

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                        • #13
                          Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                          He has boomed and busted several times in his "career," the guy is a habitual big gambler/speculator. Lets see if he even makes the Fortune 400 in the fall.

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                          • #14
                            Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                            Sounds to me like Pickens needs to get those dinasours insured to the tilt, store them all in one location and have himself a little fire.

                            I saw some Korean fellas do that with a couple shopping centers in Los Angeles to get out of some bad lease agreements after they purchased the properties.

                            The cap rate went up almost three points on one fire alone. If I remember correctly, one matchbook netted them close to 600k.

                            One of the numerous reasons why I left LA.

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                            • #15
                              Re: T. Boone Pickens Calls Off Massive Texas Wind Farm

                              Originally posted by Quincy K View Post
                              One of the numerous reasons why I left LA.
                              LA is like smoking. Once you've gotten away from it, you realize what a nasty habit it is. I'm a very happy ex-Angeleno.

                              Comment

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