SOLAR TODAY Blog

The June issue of Fast Company runs an interview with T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil tycoon who announced last month a plan to build 4,000 megawatts of wind turbines in West Texas, complete with his own transmission lines.

Pickens is out outspoken about peak oil, imported oil, global warming, gas taxes, production tax credits and ethanol, among other subjects. He wants the renewable energy tax credit renewed. He predicts that gasoline will sell for $6 to $8 per gallon within five years and advocates a gas tax to suppress demand. He thinks generous support for domestic ethanol is better than sending $700 billion a year out of the country for imported oil. He thinks we can supply nearly all of our incremental need for electricity through development of wind power.

And over the weekend he told Living on Earth “I think solar will be next, and I hope I’m still around to be in the solar deal.”