Right now, the United States (only 4% of the population of the world) uses 25% of all the oil produced in the world. Today we spend $700 billion a year to import foreign oil.
Solar energy is one of the great “clean” alternative energy sources available today, and because of the scarcity of oil, it will be growing and evolving even faster on a residential level and an industrial level. But America has an even greater potential for a clean energy resource.
It can be found in the great plains of the United States in states like Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas. No, they haven’t found new oil deposits, or coal or shale. This resource has been around since recorded history. It’s indirectly connected to solar power and it is 100% renewable. If you guessed wind power, you’re right.
A Stanford University study in 2005 stated that “there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.”
These are staggering findings and can really put things in perspective in terms of the obvious opportunity staring us in the face.

Enter The Unlikely Hero

With every opportunity, timing is critical. And most entrepreneurs understand timing. And the man with his finger on the pulse for this incredible opportunity is oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens.
Hailing from the small Oklahoma town of Holdenville, T. Boone Pickens is a classic story of success from humble beginnings. He graduated college as a Geologist, and by the mid 1950’s already broke out on his own as an independent geologist and founded Mesa Petroleum, a company that still stands today as a symbol of innovation and ingenuity in the energy sector and the business world. What T. Boone Pickens proposes to build and accomplish is nothing short of a complete win-win situation and the beginning of an energy movement and paradigm shift that is long overdue.

The Plan

The plan is a two-pronged approach that consists of taking advantage of the “wind” corridor that runs from the Texas panhandle all the way up to North Dakota. Mr. Pickens’ Mesa Power Company is already building the largest wind power facility in the world in Pampa, Texas. It would yield the equivalent combined power of 2 large coal-fire plants; about 4,000 megawatts. Such developments would also lead to other positive results in terms of job creation for these rural areas. It would cost about $1.2 trillion in the next 10 years to set up the network of wind power complexes proposed. These would in turn provide for 20% of all of the energy needs in the US. The price tag is only a one time cost.
The second part of the strategy involves redirecting the production of clean-running natural gas from electric power plants to an alternative auto fuel. Today, natural gas is responsible for about 22% of the electricity generated in the USA. Only 1% of America’s natural gas is being used for transportation. Natural gas vehicles or NGV’s run much cleaner than regular gas or diesel cars, and the price for a gallon of natural gas is $1.
The USA today spends $700 billion a year buying foreign oil for our cars. The Pickens Plan’s main objective is to reduce our dependence of foreign oil by a third.
Check out the Pickens Plan right now.

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