T. Boone Pickens

[obi-1]

@Darkstar

I dont think taxpayers will be shouldering the majority of the burden. I would imagine that private companies will be putting up the capital to get this done.

If this plan were to come to fruition, it would be AWESOME for Western PA. We would become the Saudi Arabia of the United States with all of the NG under us. It would mean a ton of new jobs, and a SHIT FUCKING TON of royalty payments being put into our local economy.

Read on about the Marcellus Shale:

Marcellus Shale: Results Continue to Amaze Geologists

Interesting. More on the funding of the Pickens Plan (at the bottom):

http://www.coxwashington.com/hp/content/reporters/stories/2008/07/20/2008/07/22/ENERGY_PICKENS22_COX.html

THE PICKENS PLAN

1. Private industry funds the installation of thousands of wind turbines in the U.S. wind corridor, providing 20 percent or more of the nation’s electricity supply.

2. The private sector builds power transmission lines to bring the wind-generated electricity to population centers in the South, West and Midwest.

3. The natural gas that has historically fueled power plants in those regions is redirected to the transportation system to replace imported gasoline and diesel fuel.

As long as the funding doesn’t come from federal taxes, I guess 1 and 2 sound like pretty good ideas. Not sure about directly replacing fossil fuel burning cars with CNG though. Can gas powered cars be converted easily (and inexpensively) to CNG? I don’t know much about that. Or, would it be anticipated that consumers will buy new CNG cars since the fuel is expected to be much cheaper?