Climate and energy

Earlier today in Topeka was the kick-off for the series of town hall meetings that oilman T. Boone Pickens is having to publicize his Pickens Plan.

Doors were to open at 3:30 p.m., but if you got there that late then you probably didn’t get a seat. Here’s a snapshot of the crowd outside – I believe someone ran out to get them bottled water, so no one passed out in the heat. So I heard. Inside there were cookies.

The event was held inside Heritage Hall at the KS Expo Fairgrounds. It was packed inside and out – lots of media, plus guys wearing everything from farm suspenders and John Deere hats to guys in three piece suits. The women were all dressed like we usually dress in summer, pretty much.

Lots of legislators, lots of lobbyists, lots of energy folk, including all three Kansas Corporation Commission commissioners. Two major decisions face the KCC this fall – resolving a transmission line dispute between ITC Great Plains and Westar Energy, and resolving an energy efficiency docket that involves decoupling.

KCC Chairman Thomas Wright is the gentleman in the grey suit on the right of the picture below.

Representative Annie Kuether, ranking Democrat on the Kansas House Energy Committee, kicked off the introductions. Memorable quote: “We had quite a conversation, as you know, about energy last legislative session.” Lots of laughter in the room.

Kuether introduced Governor Sebelius. Sebelius too continued the metaphor of energy conversations, and discussed the energy crisis in America right now. She concluded with “When you’re in a hole, it’s time to stop digging.” The crowd seemed to agree. Sebelius then introduced T. Boone Pickens, and here they are below.

With the help of a white board, Pickens then laid out his energy plan. His premise is that the U.S. is dependent on foreign oil, the dominant fuel of our transportation sector. His solution is to switch a large chunk of transportation fuels over to natural gas.

In turn this switch would remove that amount of natural gas as an option for electrical generation. He would fill this gap with wind. Pickens himself is planning on putting in 4,000 megawatts (MW) of wind into the Texas panhandle.

By comparison, the Smoky Hill wind farm in Lincoln County along I-70 will only be about 200 MW at the completion of Phase II, which I believe it is just starting. 4,000 MW equals a lot of turbines, and Pickens won’t be able to get them until 2010.

As many Kansans know, building wind power optimally takes the Production Tax Credit, and it takes transmission lines to get the wind power to market. In the course of the discussion, it emerged that Pickens has similar interests.

A gentleman in the audience who identified himself as a lobbyist for natural resource development in oil, gas, wind, sand dredging, etc., asked Pickens how he planned to deal with members of the public who fought permitting processes for transmission lines, wind farms, pipelines, etc.

Pickens responded that the only people in his area who didn’t like wind turbines were the ones who didn’t have any on their property. He also made an argument (in responses to other questions, as well) that the federal government needed to clear transmission corridors that would obviate the permitting process.

Eminent domain was not directly mentioned. However, I imagine what he is referring to is that under the Energy Act of 2005 the federal government (thru FERC, I think) has the power to declare transmission-constrained or -congested areas of the country “corridors of national interest.” Then within those areas, it can use eminent domain to build the lines.

How does eminent domain work? It’s really complicated. I don’t have a good answer. Sometimes it just takes the form of an easement, which allows the original landowner to retain some form of possession as well as other land rights. Sometimes it takes the whole schmeer, title included.

Could eminent domain affect subsurface and mineral rights as well? Or as my dad asked, if you get eminent domain for a transmission line, can it be used for a pipeline as well? Don’t know. (I think he was probably thinking about Pickens water pipeline from the Ogallala plan, which is separate from the wind/natural gas plan.)

The only historical precedent for this scale of eminent domain would probably be the highway system, built in the postwar era under Eisenhower. Similar to, but also very different than transmission.

Other questions from the crowd: Natural gas is not a renewable energy source. It is a finite, fossil fuel source, so this solution is just a band aid. How long will it last. Pickens: Natural gas is a bridge fuel, good for maybe a 20-30 year bridge to renewables.

Another question was raised about coal power. Pickens refused to get drawn into the Kansas coal controversy (smart) but said that for coal to work, it will have to be able to sequester carbon.

The questions might have pushed the discussion in this direction, but the bulk of it ended up more about natural gas than about wind.

There were a few missing pieces. Pickens’ vision is definitely on a grand scale. However, on the other end of the spectrum there were several questions from the crowd about what normal people could do – with $200 per month, how do you invest it in clean energy and do the right thing – how do we get net metering for small wind and solar at our own home – etc.

The Pickens Plan is more about the Pickens end than the people end, at least at this stage. However, Pickens made clear that he is still working thru and thinking about it and that is part of what these town meetings are for.

Photos by Ben Morgan. Text by Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org