Oil Crisis 2008: Boone Pickens Buys Into Wind Energy
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Oil crisis 2008: You know when things are getting bad for the oil industry when legendary oil investor T. Boone Pickens starts buying into wind energy.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Pickens, through Mesa Power, ordered 667 wind turbines from General Electric to begin a $10 billion wind-farm project in Texas that will be the nation’s largest.
Delivery of the equipment will begin in mid-2010, Dallas-based Mesa said today in a statement. When completed in 2014, the Pampa Wind Project in northern Texas will be capable of producing 4,000 megawatts, the company said. That’s enough power for about 1.2 million average U.S. homes.
Abundant wind, open land, federal tax credits and rising electricity prices have made Texas the largest U.S. producer of electricity from wind. Mesa’s Pampa Wind Project would almost double that generating capacity. Royal Dutch Shell Plc has proposed a 3,000-megawatt wind project in the state.
The wind turbines ordered from GE for the $2 billion first phase of the Pampa Wind Project will be capable of producing a total of 1,000 megawatts, Mesa said. A megawatt of wind-power is enough for 300 average U.S. homes, according to the association.
Peak Oil guru Byron King and editor of Outstanding Investments reckons much of oil’s climbs can be attributed to dollar weakness.
What should you do as an investor to protect yourself from a declining dollar?
Here is Byron’s abbreviated list of recommendations:
1. Buy gold and silver
2. Own mining shares
3. Own energy plays. What forms of energy? All of them — oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels
4. Own energy service plays
5. Own infrastructure plays
6. Buy soft commodities, but only if you really understand how to do this
Read on at Outstanding Investments about how to protect your wealth from the dollar’s demise.