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T. Boone Pickens - Two Views

Newsweek sees his skulduggery as something to admire, almost to be chuckled at, or along with. T. Boone Pickens is an "evil" capitalist (or perhaps he's been downgraded to a rascally capitalist) they can admire because he's investing in water and wind instead of oil.

It's not as though Pickens doesn't have a few crafty deals on his own ledger. Five years ago he launched a controversial scheme to buy water rights around Roberts County, Texas, the same region of the panhandle where he plans to build his wind farm—and where he owns a 68,000-acre ranch. The idea was to pump water from the Ogallala aquifer to cities downstate. Though he never found a buyer for the water, Pickens did win the right of eminent domain for his pipeline. His attorneys applied to create an entity known as a groundwater-supply district, which was gerrymandered to include only two voters: his two ranch hands. The measure passed, to no one's surprise. Though Pickens says he has abandoned the water project, his lawyers want to use the water corridor to site a private transmission line from his panhandle wind farm to power-hungry cities. "You have to admire his guts and his gall," says Thomas (Smitty) Smith, director of Public Citizen, an advocacy group that opposed Pickens's water business.

Since he's been rehabilitated and now wants to bring Al Gore's vision to fruition, he can apparently do no wrong, even though he took land from other land owners for his own use by way of eminent domain, even though he used some shady (at least to me) gerrymandering to get his way and so that he can make a the huge profit that he claims he doesn't care about, and even though in order to make that profit that he really doesn't care about, he's demanding huge government subsidies. Nope, he's not evil anymore, not like those evil oil executives who dare to make "obscene" (as opposed to merely erotic) profits from the U.S. Government keeping a lid on our oil supplies.

For the rest of the story, let's visit Michelle Malkin and see what kind of shenanigans, Pickens, and one of his investment partners, Nancy Pelosi are up to.

Naturally, the Pickens Big Wind plan is proudly endorsed by Do-Nothing Pelosi’s friends at the obstructionist Sierra Club. Through another company, Mesa Power, Pickens has committed upwards of $12 billion in wind farms on the Texas panhandle. CEFC and Mesa Power are separate entities. But what benefits one piece of the Pickens puzzle benefits them all. The wind venture, as Pickens himself acknowledges, depends on permanent federal subsidies.

Pickens is banking on ‘em. And Pelosi’s banking on him.

As reported on #dontgomovement.com, Speaker Pelosi bought between $50,000 and $100,000 of stock in Pickens’ CLNE Corp. in May 2007 on the day of the initial public offering:

“She, and other investors, stand to gain a substantial return on their investment if gasoline prices stay high and municipal, state and even the Federal governments start using natural gas as their primary fuel source. If gasoline prices fall? Alternative fuels and the cost to convert fleets over to them becomes less and less attractive.

Things are different when the Speaker of the House, the one who promised the most ethical Congress ever, is an investor in your scheme. And when you have Newsweek Magazine covering for you because you've become politically correct, the rules no longer apply to you. Then you can be as shady and dishonest as you want, because for some, the ends justify the means. And watch out for those ends. They will get us in the end.

So from Newsweek we have another solid example of opinion disguised as news. From Michelle Malkin, we have another shining example of why the brain-dead weasels on the Left hate her. The nerve of that woman, exposing the facts that Newsweek didn't want us to know!

Labels: Michelle Malkin, Nancy Pelosi, Newsweek, T. Boone Pickens

posted by Harry @ 8:01 PM