Allen Fuller

'Pickens Plan' Comes in the Nick of Time

Pickens' Plan is a great first step. There are some problems with it, but I think these can be addressed.

The biggest problem facing America is that we need 10 or 20 "Pickens' Plans" in the next 10 to 20 years. We need wind, solar, nuclear, ocean power, electric cars, improvements to our power grids, grid-scale energy storage, and yes, we DO need to drill for whatever oil we have left.

Currently, worldwide, we only find about 1 new barrel of oil for every 6 that we use up, and this is finally starting to catch up with us. Coal is a huge resource but if we switch everything over to it (e.g. coal to oil liquification) then we'll use up a supposedly 200-year supply much faster than we expect. Oil shale may help, but we can't extract it fast enough to replace all our oil. Moreover, it is expensive and consumes a lot of energy... leaving a much smaller "net" gain in energy than many people expect.

In the LONG run (and that's how we should be viewing things instead of this stupid stopgap mentality you see from politicians and partisans), if it's not renewable, it's not going to be an option, whether we like it or not. So that's where the biggest push should be. Take Nanosolar's approach, for example. They have just built, I think, the biggest solar plant in the world, and by some calculations, can provide solar electricity for cheaper than coal (over the life of the solar panel). However even though it's the largest plant in the world, we need 100 of them, not just 1. We also need to develop grid-scale energy storage technologies because the sun doesn't shine at night!

So yes, Pickens' plan is a good start. Let's do it and let's do 10 times more in the next 10-20 years.