The
2013 annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society took place this past
January in Austin, Texas. One of the
topics was that of energy and climate. Billionaire
T. Boone Pickens spoke on Sunday evening before the annual meeting began. It was an enjoyable evening and interesting
to hear was he had to say.
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| T. Boone Pickens |
First,
he holds a degree in geology from Oklahoma State University. Pickens said “I’m one of the few (petroleum)
geologists that agree that global warming is happening.” He agrees that we need to do something to mitigate
the effects of the warming. It is
smarter to do something to avoid the problem rather than waiting until it
happens to do anything.
However,
he went on to say that hydrocarbons (fossil fuels) would be with us for the
next 50 years. Pickens said that wind
and solar represent just 2% of the energy generation and he didn’t think that
it would become substantial until it became economically more competitive with
fossil fuels. That means a price of
about $6 for natural gas (it is just under $4 today).
Pickens
is against the idea of a carbon tax or cap & trade. However, he did not say whether he agreed
with the idea of ending fossil fuel subsidies.
Tom Friedman of the New York Times has an interesting article on
attacking carbon emissions and the fiscal debt.
