At $2 Billion Wind Turbine Order Is Largest Ever

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has placed an the largest ever order for wind turbines: he ordered 667 wind turbines from GE, each costing $3 million dollars, making the total order $2 billion. Pickens plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in the panhandle of Texas.

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When anyone invests $300 million dollars into promoting alternative energy sources, the Democrats usually take notice. Mr. Pickens is spending big trying to educate the public that America's war on terror should include foreign oil. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., praised Pickens' plan, calling it a "classically American message of can-do optimism."

A full overview of his plan is at PickensPlan.com, but here are the sticking points that drive the plan:
US Oil imports nearing 70% at $700 billion per year
The United States uses 25% of the oil in the world
Natural Gas is the 2nd largest natural resource in the country and accounts for 22% of the electricity produced
There are 8,000,000 cars in the world that run on natural gas
Wind can replace the need for natural gas in electric production
The bulk of the plan is this: The central corridor in the United States is ripe for utilizing and harvesting wind for generating electricity. By harnessing this, the 22% of electricity that is currently being produced using natural gas can be completely replaced by wind energy.

If we take the natural gas that was being used for electricity and convert it for use in transportation, the United States' dependency on foreign oil would be reduced by 38%, or $300,000,000,000 per year. Natural gas is cleaner, it's abundant in the United States, and wind is, for all intents and purposes, limitless.

Now implementing his plan along with Hydropower, Solar power plants and nuclear energy could really make a difference for not only energy independence but also for a healthy planet Earth. No natural gas is not an utopian solution. Because really no single source of energy that the USA can make use of can be the total solution to what is a very large problem. A multi pronged aproach using many alternative and standard energy sources  is the only real solution.  We must use what energy sources we have in a responsible way. However its impractical to keep passing the buck for a solution to the next generation before the world runs out of oil.