Do you support the Pickens energy plan?

Question

The billionaire T. Boone Pickens has a great idea about reducing oil dependency of the United States.

http://www.pickensplan.com/

What do you think of it? Will it work?

Answer 1

Yes, but someone's suggestion that nuclear should be part of it, is not very wise.  

Nuclear generation of electricity is VERY expensive, probably still more expensive even at today's oil prices.  

Nuclear plants are expensive to build, operate and de-commission (which must be done after ~30 years of operation due to neutron embrittlement of the pressure vessel).   So even the process of shutting them down is expensive and we get zero watts of electricity out of the process.  

I won't bother to go into the dismal safety record the nuclear industry has, or the incredible expense of dealing with spent fuel rods, which need to be stored, transported and reprocessed.

In short, if you don't want high electric bills, or to see your property destroyed by a massive release of radiation (the nuke industry has liability limits that almost let them go scott-free if a major accident occurs, so don't expect an insurance check, even if you get out alive) stay away from nuclear.

Answer 2

it should as he wants us to open up all domestic avenues

to get out of this crisis, if we can't help ourselves WTH are we helping others for... you need to be self sufficient to be able to help others, we should start now before we reach the point of no return

Answer 3

We can't do it by wind power alone. Wind power will not relieve us of our oil problem. Oil will continue to be an important factor for many years to come. The only way is to drill for our own oil and increase our own output, thereby reducing our dependance on foreign oil. True it is not a problem we can fix overnight whichever path we choose to walk. We have gotten ourselves into this predicament, and we did not help ourselves by halting the construction of our oil refineries in 1976. I can support the Pickens plan as it will increase our electric capacity, but oil?  That's a totally different kettle of fish.

Answer 4

Yes, but only if his entire plan including nuclear power is included in the mix.

Wind, solar and biomass will not replace coal and gas fired power plants with out nuclear doing the heavy lifting.  

There are two nuclear power plants waiting licensing by the NRC for the Amarillo,TX area (Pickens' old home town).

Answer 5

I agree with him on wind power, but not on natural gas.  For starters we don't have the infrastructure to refuel natural gas cars.  On top of that, we don't have a whole lot of natural gas reserves in the US.  Our natural gas production peaked decades ago.

In terms of transportation, electric cars are the way to go.  We can even use the wind energy to power them, unlike with natural gas cars.