The Pickens Plan – An Antidote to America’s Addiction to Oil

The Pickens Plan is to install enough wind turbines from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota to produce 20% of the electricity for the United States within 10 years. The power generated from this system would allow shifting the natural gas now used to produce 22% of our electricity away from electrical generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire who made his fortune as a Texas oilman, has proposed an ambitious, but doable, specific plan to (1) enhance our national security by making the country more energy independent, (2) help the country economically by reducing the wealth drain on the country (and create “green” jobs), and (3) slow global warming by constraining the production of greenhouse gases.

More about the Pickens Plan (Microsoft Word document) (Letter to the Editor by Rick Olson, printed in the Ann Arbor News, 9/17/08)

Michigan’s Opportunity as Part of the Pickens Plan (Microsoft Word document)

How the Pickens Plan Fits Into the Big Energy Picture (Microsoft Word document)

Energy Policies Necessary to Implement the Pickens Plan (Microsoft Word document)

The Michigan State Legislature passed SB 213 in the fall of 2008 (Public Act 295 of 2009), which became effective October 6, 2008. The full act is available at Michigan Legislature. The Bill Analysis by the Senate Fiscal Agency is available.

The PA 295 provisions establish a renewable energy standard, consisting of a renewable energy capacity portfolio and a renewable energy credit portfolio, under which 10% of an electric provider's energy must come from renewable sources by 2015; require electric and natural gas providers to file energy optimization plans; require the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Department of Management and Budget (DMB) to take certain actions related to energy efficiency and conservation; and provide for the establishment of wind energy resource zones.

• Granholm Applauds Renewable Energy Package
• Sierra Club News Release
• Summary of PA 295 by DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy) (more readable than the Bill Analysis)