On September 27, 2006 to great fanfare and international media attention, Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, California’s landmark bill to drastically cut greenhouse gases in California.
As with all “landmark” bills the devil is in the details. Does anyone remember AB1890 California’s “landmark” Electricity Deregulation bill? As someone who was in the trenches at the California ISO during the Energy Crisis of 2000-01, I remember it vividly.
Whether you agree with the merits of AB 32 or not, it is the law and now we must implement it. The California Air Resources Board and a slew of other government officials and business groups are now in the process of setting the standards of how California is going to meet the aggressive goals set out by AB 32.
Setting standards is one thing, but what will be the means to get there?
Enter T. Boone Pickens.
Pickens, a self-described “oilman”, recently began a one man crusade to push America to get off its addiction to foreign oil and use the resources we have like wind to deliver clean electricity and natural gas to power our vehicles. He understands that we need to push harder for alternatives beyond these, but he has been around the energy business long enough to know that it will be a long transition to the future. The beauty of the Pickens Plan is that we can get started right now. You can get more information at PickensPlan.com.
And Proposition 10 on the November ballot will allow California to lead the way for the rest of the nation as we have in the past on other critical issues.
Proposition 10 is a $5 billion bond that will provide consumer incentives for purchasing clean and alternative fuel vehicles, provide funds to encourage electricity generation from renewable sources and money for research and development, education and job creation so we can build a base of green businesses.
It begins to give us the means to meet the standards and goals that we will soon be forced to deal with.
As I have said before in previous commentaries, I believe that the solution to our energy situation rests on a three-legged stool that consists of common sense conservation, aggressive exploration and visionary innovation. Pickens’ ideas both nationally and here in California are in line with this.
Some will say we don’t need any more bonds. But bonds have gotten a bad reputation lately since we used them a few years ago to pay off old debts. I am opposed to that kind of bonds. I do support bonds for schools, critical infrastructure and sound investments for our future.
I believe that Prop 10 falls into that category because it helps us meet the environmental goals California has placed into law. It assists businesses, like independent truckers that will bear the brunt of new regulations, gives incentives to consumers to purchase cleaner vehicles and develops new green energy technologies and trains the people we will need to implement them.
But I have another purpose in writing about T. Boone Pickens.
It is about another man, Anthony Rubinstein, who recently wrote an Op-ed for the Los Angeles Times trashing Pickens and Proposition 10. It is so full of fabrications, bald faced lies and character assassination that I don’t have enough space to list them all here. One whopper is that Proposition 10 provides $200 million for a Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal. It does no such thing. Don’t they have “fact checkers” at the LA Times?
Mr. Rubinstein was involved in the effort to pass Proposition 87 a few years ago and it is a matter of record that a few months ago he offered his services to the Pickens team to help them pass Proposition 10. He said his fee would be $30,000 a month. He was thanked for his interest but he was not hired. It was then that he got the LA Times to print his screed against Mr. Pickens.
Now T. Boone Pickens doesn’t need me to defend him against lies and innuendo. I have never met the man, but I have read much about him. He was a child of the Great Depression, grew up in hardscrabble Oklahoma, has lived most of his life in Texas, is plenty tough and I would love to have him by my side in any fight.
But when someone is willing to put their money where their mouth is to help solve a tough problem, they shouldn’t have to defend themselves from someone whose only gripe is that they didn’t get the contract. Do you think if he had been hired he would have written that piece?
I work with many reporters from the LA Times, have good relationships with them, respect them and their work and I like to think I give them straight answers to their questions. But the editorial page editors are a whole different animal. They allowed this disgruntled consultant to use the editorial pages of their paper for revenge. There is no other word to describe Mr. Rubinstein’s column.
A final thought about T. Boone Pickens.
He is speaking the truth about our energy future without mincing words or all the high falutin’ talk we hear from politicians in Washington and Sacramento. And while others are content to confuse activity for action, he is taking action. And as he has done in the past he is willing to invest his own money and take the risk. Just like other men who in another time built California.
He has come a long way from a self described “Oilman” of the 20th Century. I think he needs a new title. I would suggest he is the first “Energyman” of the 21st Century.