Pickens Plan District Group NC-03

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Comment by Al Toman on October 28, 2009 at 2:45pm

I was just emailed this weeks Pollution Online newsletter.

North Carolina Coal Ash is poisoning your kids future

North Carolina owns 25% of the nation's bad coal ash management and it has been this way for decades. Like, has not the State Congress been around this same period. Yup. Somebody has their hands in the State Congress back pockets and it doesn't look pretty but it feels ahhhh sooo sooo good.

Another case in point where politicians are exactly that. Excerpts from the article are below. The full article is here

Drink That Water

"Because coal ash is minimally regulated in North Carolina, the exact impacts to downstream communities is unknown, and further testing is needed," said Lisenby.

The news follows the EPA's announcement last June of the 44 most high-hazard coal ash impoundments in the nation, 12 of which were located in North Carolina alone and a report on Monday by 60 Minutes on the toxicity of coal ash.

Comment by Geoff Bailey on September 25, 2009 at 2:15pm

Please come to a Town Hall meeting with T. Boone Pickens where he will discuss the Pickens Plan and take questions from the audience.

Doors open up at 6:30 PM and the event begins promptly at 7:00 PM. This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. For ticket information, please visit http://pickensincharlotte.com/.

**Please note that tickets for this event are general admission with no specific seat reservations.**

For additional questions or information, please e-mail info@pickensincharlotte.com or call Ladonna Snodgrass at (704) 233-1776, ext. 1.

Check the event out on facebook here.

Comment by Robert Danford NC-03 District Leader on August 12, 2009 at 3:22pm

This is what motivates me to push the plan Al :

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/others/pdf/oil_peaking_netl.pdf

Comment by Al Toman on August 12, 2009 at 5:39am

As an example of how things don't work:

Approximately 15+ years ago, NG was deregulated in NY. I became involved in it as requested by the company for which I was working. We entered the free market and began pushing NG up the pipelines. The intent was to convert as many vehicles as possible, establish commercial fleets, build fueling stations, yadda, yadda.

The end result was the State's electric and gas company converted some of their fleet. Some municipal buses were put on NG. A few fleets in the City converted. That was about it. Not much different today.

So, people, you gotta stop talking general nonsense (yippie-yi-ya, God Bless America) talk. Gotta start talking action, put an action plan into place.

Talking to Rep Jones isn't action. It's talk.

GM's "talk" is the $40,000 Volt that goes 230mpg. What a joke. The average USA bloke can't afford to piss in a pot unless s/he has a credit card. That vehicle ain't gonna get 1mpg if the vehicle can't be purchased. Besides, the car isn't really intended to make head-way until earliest, 15 to 20 years from now.
It takes 23 hours to charge up your Volt on household current unless you have an expensive booster installed. Anyway ...

Here's the power talk you NEED to be talking and with the RIGHT people.

1) How are you going to get the NG into North Carolina?
2) Is NG deregulated in NC?
3) Where, how, and who is going to build the fueling stations?
4) How does Average Joe convert to NG, or, in other options, take advantage of NG?
5) Who is going to maintain NG vehicles?
6) What taxes and fees will be placed on the NG as a motor fuel?
7) Who is going to administer NG in NC?
8) How much is all of this going to cost (particularly, Average Joe)?

So, people. Make YOUR list of what needs to be answered. Start thinking about that list. Get answers to those questions. That is, find the RIGHT people who have those answers. AND I guarantee (cause I bin there, done that, and I also know the Jones platform) that Rep Jones ain't it.

So, we have our work cut out for us to make this happen, if we really want it to happen.

Anyone wanna take the lead? :o)

Comment by Andrew J Rauly on August 11, 2009 at 9:37pm

I want to thank Mr Dansford for the great work he has done with speaking to Congressman Jones. And yes the congressman is a Lawmaker, It is giving us the tools to use to make things happen.

When something new is introduced and not widely know people tend to shy away from it. But We the DOERS need to grab hold and run with it.

So lets take the tools that we have and start building that bridge. A bridge to a better country.

Comment by Al Toman on August 7, 2009 at 11:13am

I appreciate Mr. Danford's efforts and hopefully they will become fruitful. Unfortunately, my experience with the Jones Office is less than 0 on the IQ scale. He's a player. I learned not to count the chickens until they're hatched or a sale ain't a sale until the cash is in your hand. I believe that this HR-1835 has to make it through committee (3).

And if this Bill is successful through committee many years from now, it has to be managed by someone. Jones office claims that they are not capable of that.

Title IV of the Bill only suggests that gobberment vehicles are NG capable. The 4 letter word MUST is not included in the Bill.

Some may believe that this is GOOD NEWS and a first STEP of many.

Well, I hate to tell you. However, way back when, many moons ago, when NG was deregulated in the State of New York, I was heavily involved in it, to the extent of selling the stuff. The big time promises of fleet fueling capability across the State sorta went South (definitely not into North Carolina). I believe that NYSEG (New York State Electric and Gas) built fueling stations on its property for its vehicles and the City buses but that's as far as it got.

I DO understand that Rep Jones and such are nothing more than LAW MAKERS (and have done that poorly over the last 200 years according to History) however I would think that they would write into law some kind of management of this Bill.

I guarantee, that that's NOT going to happen (again, 200 yrs of History to backup my words). A few proponents of NG will get rich off of the stuff but that will be about it.

When the HR hits the REAL world enforcement through management is a MUST and I do NOT see MUST in this Bill.

Regardless, many kudos to Mr. Danford's efforts. I'm to old to ever see the benefits of this Bill or to even see this Bill in action but maybe Robert will catch a whiff of it, hey!?!


The text of HR-1835 should be here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1835
however, I could not access that page!?!

Comment by Robert Danford NC-03 District Leader on August 6, 2009 at 5:02pm

Congressman Walter B. Jones is now a co-sponsor of HR-1835. I highly encourage everyone here to contact Mr. Jones & personally thank him for taking this important step towards making our country safer, creating new jobs and helping to end our dependence on foreign oil.

Comment by Robert Danford NC-03 District Leader on July 15, 2009 at 5:26pm

Hello NC-03!

I will be meeting with Congressman Walter B. Jones in Greenville on August 3, 2009 to discuss the Pickens Plan & why he should support our cause. If any of you have any questions or comments that you would like for me to relay to Mr. Jones please send me a message and I will make sure that your voice is heard.

Comment by Ed Matricardi on July 8, 2009 at 6:57pm

Happy Energy Independence Day

Today is the one year anniversary of the release of the Pickens Plan...

Thanks to your support and Boone’s dedication, we have been able to get Congress’ attention on Energy Independence. In fact, the Dallas Morning News wrote a good recap of our first year that you should check out...and use as inspiration to redouble your efforts in the coming months to finally get America off our addiction to foreign oil.


T. Boone Pickens fueling dialogue on clean-energy efforts
Sunday, July 5, 2009
By ELIZABETH SOUDER / The Dallas Morning News
esouder@dallasnews.com

In July of last year, Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens began a $60 million advertising campaign and speaking tour designed to persuade Americans to stop using foreign oil.

The oilman-turned-environmentalist proposed a seemingly simple plan: Convert cars, especially big fleets operated by companies and municipalities, from gasoline to domestic natural gas. And start generating more electricity from wind.

By the end of this year, Pickens predicts, Congress will finish passing laws to implement his plan. And within two years, oil imports will drop.

"We have gotten everything we went after," he said. "I have people say it didn't go very fast. Go back and compare it to other things. I think we've moved very fast."

But oil import data don't yet show much direct impact from Pickens' campaign, and a key new natural gas law hasn't made it out of legislative committee. He's persuaded some companies and municipalities to buy natural gas-powered fleets, but the numbers remain tiny.

Still, Pickens' $60 million bought remarkable influence. Because of Pickens, the term "foreign oil" entered the presidential campaigns, executive speeches and everyday discussions.

And he brought many of his conservative followers into the discussion about clean energy through his warning about energy security, allowing them to discuss alternative energy without stepping into the thorny debate about whether humans cause climate change.

"When you have a successful investor from Texas, someone from a state that, some people say, doesn't care about clean energy, to have him come out as the champion, caught a lot of people by surprise and brought a lot of attention to the incumbent [energy companies] in Texas being part of the solution," said Paul Dickerson, a former executive with the U.S. Department of Energy and head of Haynes and Boone's clean technology practice.

Pickens would probably also benefit from his plan. Pickens invests in companies that produce natural gas and sell natural gas vehicle fuel, and a company that builds wind farms.

His retort: "If I'd wanted to make money, I would have kept my $60 million."

On a mission

Instead, Pickens said, he felt he was on a mission that only he could accomplish.

"I felt like it was a mission that you had to tell the American people, you now knew something that affected their lives, their future, their children and grandchildren and everybody else, generations to come. And you had properly analyzed it, you knew what the problem was, and you had a solution for the problem," he said.

Pickens has presented his plan to Republicans and Democrats, to top executives and blue collar workers, to President Barack Obama and Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, a longtime supporter of more domestic drilling, credits Pickens with persuading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to support natural gas vehicles.

"Apparently natural gas is not a fossil fuel," Barton said, tongue in cheek. (Of course, natural gas is a fossil fuel.)

The Sierra Club doesn't oppose Pickens, a longtime Republican supporter who decorates his office with Ronald Reagan memorabilia.

"We haven't given out a wholesale endorsement of the plan, but at the same time, we think that natural gas is a good bridge fuel as we transition to a full clean-energy economy," said Josh Dorner, a spokesman for the Sierra Club.

Natural gas burns more cleanly than oil or coal. Used in a vehicle, natural gas emits 70 percent less carbon monoxide, 87 percent less nitrogen oxide and 20 percent less carbon dioxide than gasoline vehicles, according to lobby group NGV America.

Electric cars might be cleaner than natural gas, but only if the power is generated with cleaner technology, such as wind or solar. Most power in Texas comes from natural gas-fired plants.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, appointed by Obama, said Pickens "points out some really important policy issues."

For example, Pickens rightly talks about the importance of building transmission lines to carry wind-generated power from rural areas to population centers, she said.

Drop in imports

U.S. oil imports dropped 14 percent in June from the year before, according to the government's Energy Information Administration. But that probably is due to the ailing economy rather than a shift to alternative fuels.

The number of natural gas vehicles on U.S. roads has risen in the past two years by only about 8 percent to around 120,000, according to Rich Kolodziej, president of NGV America, a natural gas vehicle lobby group. That's hardly enough vehicles to account for the oil import drop.

However, Kolodziej said, demand for natural gas vehicle fuel rose about 25 percent last year as older models, which could use either natural gas or petroleum fuels, are replaced with new, natural gas-only vehicles.

Natural gas costs less than gasoline or diesel. How much less changes constantly. But the vehicle technology can be costly, and stations to fill up aren't always convenient. With few refueling stations outside of major cities, natural gas vehicles aren't as attractive to regular drivers who expect to use their cars for road trips.

But the nation's supply of natural gas is growing rapidly.

A study released last month from the Potential Gas Committee, associated with the Colorado School of Mines, estimates that the U.S. has 2,074 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, 35 percent more than in 2006. The committee said the amount grew partly because of new technology, like that developed for the Barnett Shale.

Pickens said once all of the planks of his energy policy become law, it will only take a couple of years for oil imports to decline for good.

That's only if the tax incentives are sweet enough to offset the extra costs and, in some cases, the inconvenience of using the technology.

Congress has passed the wind portion of the Pickens Plan, and wind power capacity has already risen 50 percent during the past year. The stimulus bill includes money to upgrade the power grid, and Congress has passed incentives for wind and solar energy. In Texas, new transmission lines to accommodate more wind power will cost electricity consumers around $5 billion.

Still, Pickens is missing incentives for natural gas vehicles themselves.

In April, two representatives from Pickens' home state of Oklahoma, Dan Boren and John Sullivan, introduced legislation to extend and create tax incentives for natural gas vehicles and fuel. The bill hasn't been voted out of House committee.

The bill would extend natural gas fuel, vehicle and infrastructure tax credits for 18 years. The credits are scheduled to expire this year and next. It would also provide incentives for auto manufacturers to produce natural gas vehicles, and require half of all new, federal government vehicles to be capable of operating on natural gas by 2014.

Pickens Army

While Pickens hasn't accomplished everything he wants in the halls of Congress, he has amassed a following of 1.6 million people, known as the Pickens Army, through his Web site. Members write letters to their legislators, encouraging them to adopt the Pickens Plan.

He is also meeting with executives, including those at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to stump for his favorite fuel.

Last week, AT&T Inc. said it would spend $350 million converting 8,000 of its vehicles to run on natural gas, the largest such fleet in the country. AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson chose to include natural gas in his alternative fuel fleet after an hourlong meeting with Pickens.

Pickens is indirectly connected to the company that will carry out the conversions, BAF Technologies. Pickens sits on the board of natural gas fuel supplier Clean Energy, which loaned BAF money, according to Clean Energy spokesman Bruce Russell. The loan is convertible into a 49 percent stake in BAF.

Comment by Ed Matricardi on July 1, 2009 at 4:41pm

Take Back Our Energy Future

A video reviewing the first year of the Pickens Plan has been completed and is available for you to view. It has snips of Boone talking about what he's done, where he's been, and why it is so important for America.

It also includes scenes of Army members, President Obama, former Vice President Gore and interviews with many of the leaders of the drive to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

You can be among the first to view the new video by clicking HERE
http://www.pickensplan.com/boonecam/2009/07/01/take-back-our-energy-future/

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