The Last Hurrah

I listened to an NPR interview with T. Boone Pickens a few weeks ago.

T. Boone Pickens isn't someone I'd shortlist for a humanitarian award. Being a democrat, I wouldn't be programmed to like him much. He's a previous supporter of "Dubya." He was active in the Republican party through all the wheeling and dealing 80s. He was a corporate raider and the epitomy of the big oil man.

And yet, in this interview, there was more to his story. His political activism includes the standard contributions to his state's university, but also to aid Katrina victims and end horse slaughter. And now, according to the Washington Post, "perhaps the strangest role" Pickens "has fashioned for himself is his current one: the billionaire speculator as energy wise man, an oil-and-gas magnate as champion of wind power, and a lifetime Republican who has become a fellow traveler among environmentally minded Democrats -- even though he helped finance the 'Swift boat' ads that savaged" Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. In an editorial, the New York Times reports Pickens "has decided that drilling for more oil is not the answer to the nation's energy problems. President Bush should listen to his fellow Texan and longtime political ally."

How about that?

In the interview, T. Boone stated that he was an old man and that he felt this was the legacy he wanted to leave. Maybe you're skeptical about his intentions. But I guess if I believe Bill Gates wants to spend the rest of his days doing humanitarian work, I believe T. Boone Pickens has the desire to make a difference too. So does he have the best idea out there, believing in wind and solar as a viable alternative to foreign oil? I don't have the answer to that. But I think his idea deserves to stand up in the marketplace of ideas and be challenged and examined.

So give it a "look see."

--Laura