Ok, what are some concrete things we can do to move this forward?

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Comment by Victor Gamez on July 21, 2008 at 11:30am

Chris, I thank you for taking time to address my concerns. Your words and thoughts helped me to feel reassured that we are not all going to make this huge effort mostly for the benefit of one man or one company. For my part, I will continue to share this within my sphere of influence in the communities of color in Chicago. I am in the process of building a Green Business Incubator to encourage people to start and run businesses that find and deliver practical energy solutions in Chicagoland area - the Windy City! My work continues with lots of enthusiasm, in part thanks to you:)

Best,
Victor

Comment by Chris Barrows on July 16, 2008 at 5:43pm

That's a tricky one, but I'll give it a shot!

I could probably go on for pages about this, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

The "benefit" in the practical sense will be the American people and the politicians.

Theoretically, the plan would (overtime) stabilize energy prices, increase the number of jobs and get us on a path to stabilize the economy.

This energy "freedom" and economic recovery would allow the politicians more latitude in determining foreign and domestic policy, making their jobs easier and alloing them to make more decisions based on principle instead of political and economic expediency.

Please note that I said "the politicians" instead of "our politicians". They quit being "our politicians" when they decided to implement policies which benefited only the mega-corporations instead of the people. They're supposed to work for the people, not the corporations.

From the financial end, a fairly wide range of companies should benefit:

GE, Siemensand probably ABB come to mind, but those are just guesses.

Comapnies that manufacture, process, transport any of following would probably see a large benefit from the initial investinvestment:

Copper, steel, aluminium, polymers, composites, industrial paint, gravel, concrete, asphalt, specialized electronics, industry specific communication and control systems, just to name a few.

Long haul transporters (truching companies and rail lines) should also make an initial killing.

Thats just the electrical end! The CNG and automotive end stands to benefit greatly.

In the long term cash picture, the investors in the wind farms and the owners, investors and transporters of the natural gas will stand to do quite well.

The big question comes down to how they allow the finances for the project to be raised.

If they allow only the folks with large quantities of cash to invest, then they will make the most.

If they allow the little guys to buy shares at $20 to $50 each, I'll end up buying two to four shares a month for the next decade, and make a tidy little sum about the time I'm ready to retire!

Quite a good question with no really good answer!

Comment by ART005 on July 16, 2008 at 5:31pm

Basically determine what the current and forecasted $/kWhr are and will be over the life of the equipment. Industrial wind turbines are typically around $0.10/kWhr to $0.12 and pretty resistant to inflation. If you like those numbers get on board. If you think there's a way to beat them then go for that.

The conservative practical view is some natural gas turbine use will be reduced and most future growth of elec. demand will be picked up by additional turbines, solar heat elec., maybe solar PV or something else. So coal and nuclear not likely to be reduced faster than the life of the generating equipment but growth of them can be stabilized.

Mr. Pickens will have to answer your Q's, it's a private venture to create more domestic energy at equitable rates. I'm not sure how much more you can ask for.