Working World

Thomas “T.” Boone Pickens is a Texas billionaire who made a fortune in oil in the 1960s and ’70s and in corporate acquisitions in the 1980s. He was something of a maligned celebrity during the Decade of Greed, known as a corporate raider whose buy-out bids made him a very rich man. Despite his background in petroleum, he is now advocating for alternative energies such as natural gas and wind power, and has created a full-blown educational campaign that is available on the Internet.  
   
His Pickens Plan outlines a strategy to replace the use of natural gas with wind energy to produce electricity, and switch that newly available domestic natural gas to transportation uses, thereby decreasing our need for and dependence on expensive foreign oil. 

Not coincidentally, Pickens owns a company called Clean Energy that operates natural gas fueling stations all over the U.S.  Some critics have said his plan is too much about his own self-interest; others say that doesn’t make it a bad idea.

Pickens does not deny that he would profit; one of his lobbyists, Michelle Laxalt, says it is also true that he wants to “see Americans move into domestic self-reliance, which protects us from a lot of creepy people who hate our guts.” 

As far as the wind power part of the equation, Pickens recognizes that dwindling worldwide supplies of oil are going to continue to decline and prices will rise, but he figures we will never run out of wind, especially in the Texas Panhandle. He has already ordered 687 wind turbines (worth $2 billion), intending to create a wind farm there called the Pampa Project through his company Mesa Power LLP.

In June 2009, however, he announced a delay. Transporting the energy to the major cities that need it depends on development of a grid that does not yet exist. Pickens has not been able to privately finance a grid to carry the energy, so going forward with the project will have to wait until the State of Texas completes transmission lines in 2013.               

In the meantime he is chairman of BP Capital Management (for Boone Pickens, not British Petroleum), which he founded in 1997. The company runs hedge funds investing primarily in energy companies. Another project, through his company Mesa Water, involves buying up subsurface water rights in the Texas Panhandle with the hope of turning the water there into a saleable commodity. 

Pickens grew up in Oklahoma and Texas where his father worked in oil and mineral rights. He graduated from Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) in 1951 and worked for Phillips Petroleum before a stint as a wildcatter. He eventually founded his own company, Mesa Petroleum, and by 1968, Pickens was utilizing Mesa as a basis for making bids for other companies that were often much larger than his own.

Politically, Pickens is a supporter of Republicans and conservative causes. In 2004, he financed the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, whose “Swift Boat” ads did a lot of damage to John Kerry’s image during the presidential campaign. 

At 81, Pickens is married to Madeleine Farris Pickens, his fourth wife. He has five children by former wives. The Pickens’ own thoroughbred horses and have been active in animal welfare, helping to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. Madeleine organized massive pet rescue efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and is currently trying to develop a wild horse sanctuary. They live in the exclusive Preston Hollow section of Dallas.   

Suzanne Ridgway is a freelance writer and regular columnist for Working World and Working Nurse magazines. She also writes grant proposals for nonprofit organizations.