2Sustain

The February cover story for the Dallas edition of Smart Business is an interview with T. Boone Pickens. The timing couldn’t be better for this iconic oil businessman-turned-wind-energy-advocate because over the past week, U.S. wind energy has been making big headlines.

First, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported that the U.S. wind energy industry installed 8,358 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity in 2008, shattering all previous annual records and swelling our national wind power generating capacity by 50%.

Then, just two days ago, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) announced that the U.S. has surpassed Germany to become the world leader in wind power installations. Overall, global wind energy capacity grew by a record 28.8% in 2008, with China’s total capacity doubling for the fourth consecutive year in a row.

That’s all good news, although AWEA is quick to point out that the economic downturn started hitting the wind energy industry hard a few months ago. According to the press release, financing for new projects and orders for turbine components have slowed to
a trickle. Many workers in the wind turbine manufacturing
sector are facing layoffs. (An article in yesterday’s New York Times details recent cutbacks in the wind and solar industries.) Will we be able to keep up the record pace of 2008 and meet national renewable energy goals, like those set out in the “Pickens Plan?”

According to the interview in Smart Business, Pickens sees a national commitment to wind energy as precisely the antidote we need for the current economic doldrums. Infusing renewable energy into the power grid will decrease our dependence on foreign oil, cut power costs, and create jobs (as many as 138,000, he predicts) –all of which will put U.S. businesses in a better financial position.

Granted, none of this can happen overnight. Pickens says we have to look several years down the road. “But you have to be planning ahead, and
if you haven’t already, you have to start that plan today, ” he recommends. “To
quote my father, ‘A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius
with no plan any day of the week.’”

That’s good advice, and I’ll agree with him on this point, too: the government is going to have to help pave the way with a production tax credit and/or other incentives that can get renewable energy into the system at levels where it can really start to make a difference.

Why should your business care? Why is renewable energy so important? The Pickens’ interview ends with his insightful answers to those questions.

“Businesses should see the Pickens Plan as a great opportunity to take advantage of cheap gas and oil. This is a once in a lifetime deal for us,” he says. “Cheap oil has caused us to be addicted. Every time we talked about renewables, every time we started up new U.S. drilling, the Mideast oversupplied us and drops the prices. If we don’t do anything more than what we’ve done in the last 40 years, then in 10 years forward, we’ll be paying $200 or $300 a barrel and we’ll be importing 75 percent of our oil. And then we’ll be broke. You can’t think the future is foreign oil. The future is sustainables. Businesses also need to consider plans that aren’t just for their business, but a way to improve America. That’s part of good business practices.”