The Boone Doggle

I usually get very cynical when a billionaire goes on a crusade for the public good. The T Boone energy "plan" is one of those things that everyone should be skeptical about. Now I really enjoy watching T Boone on TV. His banter with the CNBC anchors is great entertainment. However, his energy "plan" is a complete farse. The $58 Million in advertising to promote his "plan" is just his way of cajoling Congress into forcing people to replace the natural gas used for electricity production into a automotive fuel. Not to mention he also wants to force people to give up their property rights so he can run power cables from his giant wind farms to cities in Texas.

An opinion piece in the WSJ today summarizes the "plan" and all its buffoonery today. Here are some parts:

Having reasons is not "a plan" either, but Mr. Pickens has his reasons. He says we spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil, which he calls a "transfer of wealth." But exchanging money for oil at the market price is an exchange of things of equal value. If we didn't value their oil more than our dollars, we wouldn't participate in such a bargain.

No: As Mr. Pickens says, we can't drill our way out of the dilemmas of living in the world. But drilling is one of many things we can do that are worth doing. Over time, the price mechanism and technology will tell us how to harness the energy that is infinite around us. There's the sun, the tides, geothermal and nuclear -- energy is not in short supply; only know-how is. And a shortage of know-how is a problem that our society, as long as its basic incentives remain intact, is constantly solving every single day.