PickensPlan

Transition

Some time ago, we introduce this discussion by stating, "This is an mature adult conversation about things done that relate to things to be done. If you have a sincere desire to move the Picken's Plan forward, check in here!" Somewhere along the way, the question of integrity became an issue with reference to the the web sites founder and benefactor, T. Boone Pickens. 

From this point forward, we want to be clear about certain points;

  • The Discussion creator and participants are not agents nor are they employed by Pickens or his corporate affiliates
  • The topic TRANSITION is a term employed to describe how individuals can interact with the goal of getting a national energy policy enacted by the federal government of the United States
  • The sole objective of this discussion is to help others, who may be new to the concept, Get Started

Transition is still a lively but insightful discussion of the political ramifications and requirements to employ NG as a bridge fuel to future energy independence; AND a equally informative forum for the side issues that naturally arise in the associated ideas that form the components of action. Participants engaged in this discussion lend their keen minds to unifying a common strategic objective by commenting on the various alternatives with respect to the political agenda necessary to generate a National Energy Policy.

Transition is many voices in addition to the founders. They speak of changes in the American community with regards to energy consumption and production. These voices may come from liberal, progressive, right-wing and conservative thinking, but more importantly they are collaborative. We are looking for the people with knowledge who are willing to share their expertise and intuitions with their neighbors to find a consensus necessary to unity.

Please, add your voice to this discussion by considering what you have to offer in the way of your personal expertise, experience and understanding of alternative fuels such as natural gas, solar or wind energy, hydro or thermal power, and chemical or biological process. If politics are not your forte, keep the following in mind:

  • The strength of a nation is unity in efforts that provide the greatest benefits for the most citizens
  • What will work in one region won't in another so sensible policy must accommodate the regional requirements 
  • The United States doesn't exist in a vacuum, foreign ideas and opinions are just as valuable as domestic ones.
Political people don't necessarily have the technical knowledge to make sound decisions, don't leave their educations to the paid corporate lobbyist, use the tools provided here by your neighbors. 

 

Tags: Alternative, Biofuel, Bridge, Congress, Grassroots, LNG, NG, Nuclear, Politics, President, More…Senate, Solar, Tide, Wave, Wind, energy, experience, fuels, geothermal, independence, opinion, security

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Permalink Reply by David A. Franklin on January 31, 2011 at 10:29am
I can't afford to rent a plane and fly anymore.  So no more $100 ($375) hamburger flights to Brenham.  I pay $40/month to the Greater Houston Soaring Association for the privelege of towing up gliders on the weekend with their towplane and gas.
Permalink Reply by Paul on January 31, 2011 at 10:55am

Gotta love government policies that take $375 out of the economy!  We need policies that stimulate the economy, not suppress it.  On the bright side, there are worse ways to spend a weekend than towing gliders into thermals.

Permalink Reply by David A. Franklin on January 31, 2011 at 10:58am
Agree!  I am working to promote LNG projects at my day job and thoroughly enjoy the privilege of towing gliders into thermals on the weekends.  Especially now with all the additional thermals associated with global warming. ;)
Permalink Reply by ML Hayes on January 31, 2011 at 11:44pm
Franklin,
You want the government off your back. OK, that idea of no government has been worked in earlier post. The bottomline is that the relevance to a national energy policy is as simple as 123.
1. National - the term is synonymous with government. I sympathise with the idea of reducing the complexity, but not the idea on No Government. The world isn't that civilized yet.
2. Energy - if you are not producing more than you consume, you need a government to regulate the people who do. Remember BP? (Remember the Alamo?)
3. Policy - the antique road show needs to travel to live up to its billing. Regulations tha serve no purpose are a form of social insanity. I use these disjointed metaphores to demonstrate the dysfunction. And yet, policy implies a plural existance...a recognition of more than self...tribe or community. So where introductions are not forth coming, government is the only substitute for domination by agression.
The objective of working with the people who extend an open hand is universally considered rational and civil. I will assume that you consider yourself a person worthy of common decency, respect, & autonomy. So too does Pickens and the army of supporters who face the same issus without his fame.
Now is the time to start looking across the political isle and finding collaborators who will take the information you provide into the voting booth in 2012. The real fight isn't Dems vs. Repubs. It between Republicans and themselves. Its between people that want an unfair advantage & those who just want opportunity preserved for anyone willing to put in the effort.
Permalink Reply by ML Hayes on February 9, 2011 at 11:04am
Permalink Reply by ML Hayes on February 27, 2011 at 11:23am

Dear Pickens Plan Participants,

Today February 27, 2011 I made some amendments to the TRANSITION so as to clarify the purpose and the direction of the discussion. Somehow over the holidays, this forum got bogged down in questions of integrity. Called in to question were the integrity of T. Boone Pickens; the integrity of using Natural Gas as a alternative transportation fuel to imported diesel; the integrity of yours truly for using the Pickens Plan Internet infrastructure to address the national energy policy issues in a seemingly potentially biased soapbox platform founded by Mr. Pickens.

The first change is a clarification of the purpose of this particular discussion so as to put to rest the doubts about who and what this discussion is about. It is not about the author of this description. It is about the collaboration of people who understand the fact that without the support of a financially powerful benefactor such as Mr. Pickens, we are facing an uphill battle without any way of drawing attention to the things that matter to us. Collaboration isn't about concession in any sense, so to assure those of you who are concerned, the changes as follow were designed to solicit your further consideration for participation:

  1. I am seeking comment and opinion on the idea of approaching Mr. Pickens as a group of leaders from our various communities to detach the Pickens specific program from exclusive point consideration. 
  • The independent objectives of Pickens business initiative, though laudable are not fully sustainable in this format
  • The people who were supportive of the Pickens Plan are frustrated by the lack of advancement of the national energy policy at the mercy of the Pickens' initiative regarding NG and transportation
  • The two concepts are not mutually independent of each other

       2.  I propose that the inclusion of other industry leaders in alternative or traditional energy exploration, extraction, transport, refining, distribution and production may be solicited to participate in a new effort to form a collaboration between the consuming public and the producing industries of this nation.

  • Pickens Plan launched the idea that individuals matter. The future of our energy security will be determined by interactions between consumers (SmartGrid) and producers who must work within specific compliance regulations that may not allow profitable operations in every region for every fuel or power generation activity.
  • Individuality is defeating the corporate and the public objective, energy security. Energy wise, independence is the source of our weakness not our strength.
  • As an organization with a wider appeal, the individual aspirations of corporations can be brought to the public's attention and debated by lay people as well as experts in a forum that has a single focus, a national energy policy with inclusion for all.

       3.  Extreme politics and politicians have taken the center stage, but they are division centric. We are the people and some of own control over incorporated businesses while others are either entrepreneurs (by choice or otherwise) or employees of entrepreneurs. We all consume energy and we have to find ways of working together to consume less and produce more. 

  • There is no option to consuming less and producing more. Our society is based on a growing economy so we can't sit still and tread water till someone comes along and rescues us from ourselves.
  • Just say no politics is a deadly form of procrastination. Lobbyist represent the top tier of domestic and multinational corporations and they cater to the power in position for exclusive interests. The people who are familiar with those positions are their competitors. Experience teaches us that here the initiatives foster greater competition, the public stands to benefit; but where the seekers of legal privileges gain advantages that restrict competitive choice, the people suffer needlessly.
  • Pickens Plan can be be transformed into a Public - Private forum for energy education and political advocacy of a national energy policy.

Over time, this discussion will likely change and or eventually expire. Hopefully with your considered comments on the above ideas we will be help to produce a reasonable plan to socialize the energy debate through a mature Pickens Plan foundation. Your participation is greatly needed.  What we know from the past dialogging is the tip of the iceberg. With your help and the help of other like T. Boone Pickens we can do more than remake our country. The whole world is watching.

 

Sincerely,

The Wiz

Permalink Reply by Chris Tidman on February 27, 2011 at 4:57pm

You have my vote for whatever that is worth.  I would love to find 100 people in my neighbourhood who were as concerned as I about the future.  I would hope that one in the bunch had plans for a small wind generator that the rest of us could construct to mount on  property owned by one of the group and I would get really excited if one was building an electric car which the rest of us could help with and another was creating a veg garden and/or greenhouse and one had a solar/thermal heater in the works that we could all copy.  Ideally one would have a few chickens ........  Hang in there Wiz.  It will happen when a critical mass of people wake up.  The people who are unable to see what is needed are the people who still have their eyes closed and their fingers stuck in their ears and do not want anything to change.

Nothing to stop anyone from starting their own 'ning' site which is the platform that supports the Picken's Plan.  Go to ning.com and set up your own if you like.  Think they charged me $200 for the year to host North America Party

Permalink Reply by Chris Tidman on February 28, 2011 at 6:48am

Intelligent Design

 

You either believe in evolution – we have evolved from soup OR you believe that we were created by GOD.

The world of man requires us to believe in evolution because it is the only way of rationalizing capitalism and any other form of institutionalized hierarchy.

 

If the US had an energy policy it would have to address distribution and allocation based on some form of hierarchy. Perhaps the rich would get more.

 

If, on the other hand, we believe in intelligent design ie. That we were made by GOD in his image, we are all Jesus and there is no rational justification for treating anyone differently.

Permalink Reply by ML Hayes on March 3, 2011 at 5:24pm

Lou,

Thanks for the vote.

The efforts to deflate the rich all come down to simply targeting them for strike or boycott. Some rich are truly wealthy in the sense that they have more than bank accounts and people who are standing inline to acquire their assets. I mean that not all of them are heirs. Others are simply paper tigers and their wealth bounces around like the stock market... heck that is where their wealth is on the gaming tables better known as the stock markets. They keep it shuffled from one continent to another trying to turn a piece into cash they can pocket or as you say... bank it.

If there is no way to arrange an effective boycott, strike is the next best strategy. Note the issues in Wisconsin. Who do the strike against, themselves? If they public's children don't have teachers neither the teacher's union member parent. It all seems to be a question of perspective. 

So, what do you think would occur if a a targeted strike were organized against the top three gasoline distributors? I have some ideas, but let me here from you guys. I don't mind going first but I am trying to give everyone and anyone who cares to comment the first shot. Who knows we might be thinking exactly the same.

 

The Wiz

 

Permalink Reply by Joseph ZIka on February 27, 2011 at 10:20pm

Until the fracking issue of producing natural gas is addressed, the Pickens Plan will be in limbo.  The oil and gas industry has contaminated land and water resources for temporary gain and long term harm for years.  Many people suffer from the contamination caused by oil and gas industry.  Until safety issues are addressed, the oil and gas extraction will have to wait.  Less oil and gas consumption is better than advocating more.

 

Transition doesn't mean using natural gas as a solution.  Transition is moving away from oil and gas permanently.

Permalink Reply by Joseph ZIka on February 28, 2011 at 1:59am

This may make the Pickens Plan passe.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110227/ap_on_bi_ge/us_growing_fuel

 

That would be the best for the country... just technology, no Pickens Plan to argue.  Just manufacture what we need.

Permalink Reply by David A. Franklin on February 28, 2011 at 7:50am

Joseph,

 

Growing crops for U.S. transportation fuels is financially unsustainable.  We must not divert food growing acreage to fuel growing acreage.  Food trumps transportation fuel every time.  This has been proven with the Biodiesel and Ethanol fiascos. 

 

If the industry cannot stand on it's own feet financially, without government subsidies, it does not deserve consideration.

 

Wind and Solar do not offer the power density or continuity for baseload security.  At best they are only supplemental energy soruces and their cost is exorbitant.

 

The only sustainable power generations sources that I see for the U.S. is nuclear, natural gas, coal and geothermal.

 

Natural gas also offers the only practical transporation fuel alternative to petroleum based fuels (gasoline and diesel).  CNG and LNG offer the cleanest and most economically sustainable transportation fuel for the next several decades.

 

What fuel source powers your automobile?  Have you disposed of your automobile?  Do you ride a bus or train?  Do you use electricity? (Obviously you are typing response on a computer)  Where do you think that electricity comes from?  (Mostly gas, coal and nuclear).

 

We have been living with the environmental impacts of coal mining, oil and gas for over 100 years just as we have been living with the environmental impact of urban sprawl, landfills, mining, manufacturing, row crop farming (which consumes lots of oil (diesel and gasoline) and gas (fertilizer)).  That is a price that we must pay for the technological societies that we live in.  But we cannot throw out natural gas just because a few companies have performed bad fracking.  Just as we cannot thow out lithium batteries for our hybrid vehicles because of the potential pollution in the mining and manufacturing processes or plastic manufacturing or paper mills or steel mills or chemical manufacturing or mining or host of other industries that make are part of our lives. We must utilize our own resources while honing and improving our practicies to mitigate the consequences to the best of our ability.

 

Just as we don't throw our babies out because they mess their diaper.  We love the baby and learn to clean up the mess unitl the baby grows up to take care of itself.  This has been the path of progress for virtually all industries.

Quit complaining about the natural gas baby, come up with solutions and enjoy the benefits. 

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