New Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) replies have exposed more misdeeds by Professor Edward Wegman and Yasmin Said at George Mason University (GMU), closely involved with the Kochs, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and many others known for attacks on climate science. This post reviews background and attaches FOIA files that unearthed evidence for:
-pervasive mis-use of Federal funds for inappropriate work,
-plagiarism or falsification in documents used to seek grants or credit,
-GMU violations of Federal...
Comments
Not surprising
This isn't that surprising. T. Boone Pickens is well-known for thinking that Peak Oil has already happened.
For example:
"Open letter to Texas newspapers about peak oil: 'Why aren’t you listening?'"
http://www.energybulletin.net/14606.html
I prefer Big Wind to Big Oil
I prefer Big Wind to Big Oil or Big Nuclear, but I think it would be even better to have small windpower on every individual farm and every home where feasible. Last I heard it was too expensive, but it should be getting cheaper to do.
Physics matters
Philosophically, I agree, but unfortunately:
1) There's more wind higher, and while people try hard for rooftop devices, it isn't easy.
2) These things don't scale down as well as one might like, i.e., power ~ radius^2 for a given type of design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/FantasyWindTurbines.html
T. Boone and Crude Oil
Will T. Boone actually sell electricity to make money? Probably not. Since crude oil flows in his veins, he will most likely use the electricity for advanced methods of heavy oil recovery such as steam flooding, steam-assisted gravity drainage and in-situ resistive heating.
FYI, Shell R and D has developed an in-situ method of resistive heating in oil shale deposits that will make available some of the several trillion barrels of oil equivalent in the Green River Basin.
Rather than idle speculation
Rather than idle speculation (or speculation to spread FUD, it doesn't matter), it's easier just to follow the paper trail. Judging from the agreement between Mesa Power and the Energy Reliability Council of Texas, Pickins actually is selling electricity to the consumers (specifically delivering it to the grid through either the Oklaunion or Anna substations).
Thanks Brian, John ...
... it's nice to read into the comments and find new information.
The Juice is for Oil Recovery
Hello Brian!
T. Boone's $6 bilion project has not yet been built. Shell WindPower also has a proposal to build a wind power project in the same area. There is an oil and nat. gas basin centered in Robert County.
Go over to ClimateArk and read about Shell's pilot project using in-situ resistive heating to recover oil from oil shale in western Colorado.
With oil at $100/bbl it would only take about 60 million bbl to recover capital cost.
T. Boone has always been a
T. Boone has always been a real American ... as long as there was a bundle of money to be made by him. If reducing our dependence on oil (and foreign oil in particular) isn't profitable, then why bother? Seeing beyond the profit motive never has been his strong suit.
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Alex from flowers Moscow