By John Sutter
Billionaire oil tycoon turned alt. energy advocate T. Boone Pickens took his wind power advocacy to a whole new level this week with a public relations campaign he’s calling the “Pickens Plan.”
Check out the video above. You’ll see Pickens go into teacher mode as he draws on a marker board and talks over graphs about our nation’s energy usage. His plan would involved a $1 trillion government investment in wind energy. That would enable the country to produce 22 percent its electricity from wind, freeing up natural gas for use in automobiles. Bada bing! Less dependence on foreign oil, he says.
Of course, Pickens stands to benefit from such a proposition. As The Guardian points out, he’s invested $12 billion on a wind farm in the Texas Panhandle. Compared to that number, the price of his “Pickens Plan” campaign seems small: $58 million, reportedly.
The PR blitz is all over the internet. Pickens has set up a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and there’s an entire Web site devoted to his plan.
In interviews with other news media, Pickens has said his advocacy for wind power is not motivated purely by profit. Environmental groups seem to be loving his stances.
What do you all think?
(Here’s a good analysis of how other media are covering this story, from the Knight Science Journalism Tracker)