The New Pickens Plan Problem

Michael Giberson

“It’s very hard to move mountains on energy policy, and Pickens has not yet even moved a hill,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at Rice University in Houston. “The problem that Pickens faces is that in this country if you are from the oil industry, people are naturally suspicious of what you say on energy policy.”

I don’t think this is a problem unique to the oil industry.  I think pretty much any billionaire jetsetting around and spending scads of money on a “public service” campaign would find it hard to move so much as a hill on energy policy (or health care policy or banking policy or anti-trust policy).

If George Lucas suddenly had a national energy policy that required lots of other people to spend their own money so that the world was remade in a way more to George’s liking, people would be suspicious.  Boone Pickens is not unique in this regard.

Quote from a recent Green Inc. story.