Pickens Plan: Texas oilman promotes wind power

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- It's been only a handful of days since 80-year-old Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens unleashed his Pickens Plan on the nation, a plan which advertises a solution "to stop America's addiction to foreign oil."

A bold statement, coming from a man who made his millions out in the oilfields. T Boone Pickens , the founder of Mesa Petroleum, made his fortune in the West Texas oilfields. Now Pickens is using television ads and internet sites like myspace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to promote wind energy as a way to reduce dependance on foreign oil.     

"We had 100,000 plus visitors on our website," Pickens said. "We've had more than 10,000 people sign up to help." 

The Pickens Plan suggests spending more than a trillion dollars to build wind farms and transmission lines in what he calls the "Saudi Arabia of wind power," the corridor of land that stretches from the Texas Panhandle to North Dakota.       

Pickens estimates wind power could supply 20 percent of America's electricity needs, which would free up natural gas resources to be used for tranportation.      

"You take the natural gas out, and it goes to transportation fuel, it would reduce imports by 38%," Pickens said, "This can all be accomplished in less than ten years if you have the right leadership."       

Pickens' preference for alternative energy wins kudos from environmentalists.

"The good news is he's right about the basics," said the Director of the Public Citizen Texas office, Tom "Smitty" Smith, "We're running out of oil and wind is probably the smartest, cheapest way we can generate energy for our future."      

But Smith said he's not so sure about the rest of the Pickens Plan.      

"Making our automobiles natural gas dependent is in my mind, not a good idea, because natural gas is a finite fuel, and we're running out of it just like we're running out of oil," Smith said.