Posted on Thu, Aug. 28, 2008

Pickens' wind-power mission takes him to uncharted territory

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• Pickens' wind-power mission takes him to uncharted territory
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• Pickens' wind-power mission takes him to uncharted territory

DENVER — At 80, Dallas energy billionaire T. Boone Pickens wandered into foreign territory Wednesday, pitching wind power to 400 young bloggers, shaking hands with former political target John Kerry and generally enjoying his day as a guest Democrat.

Don’t get any ideas that he might endorse Barack Obama.

"Why am I here? Because these people control Congress!" he said between interviews and I-saw-you-on-YouTube hugs at the Democratic convention.

"I’ve got an energy plan to sell. Don’t you think this is the place to sell it?"

Pickens is selling the wind. The founder of Mesa Oil just splurged for a $2 billion wind farm near Amarillo, and he wants more government investment for wind energy. If giant fans can heat and cool America’s homes, he argues, then more natural gas will be freed up to fuel trucks and buses in place of foreign oil.

In other words, he’d rather see the U.S. spend money on fancy wind gear in the Plains than on oil from Saudi Arabia.

"Nobody else has a plan," he said, his blue eyes twinkling with pride. "I’m the only one with a plan."

He has donated more than $5 million to politicians — mostly Republicans, including recent favorite Rudy Giuliani.

But he brought his plan to doubting Democrats on Wednesday, a day that can only be called T. Boone’s Big Adventure.

First, he addressed 400 liberal bloggers, who were typing away on Twitter or Digg or the Daily Kos about how he mistakenly tried to write on the projection screen instead of on the flip chart.

They cheered when Pickens said that he met with both presidential candidates because "I’m totally nonpartisan. I’m not making this political. I’m all about America."

They cheered again when he said, "I don’t do this for money." (Pickens, annually one of the five most generous American philanthropists, said his "whole estate" will eventually go to charity.)

After he said that his plan would save the U.S. $230 billion a year on foreign oil, and fellow panelist Carl Pope of the Sierra Club mostly agreed, some twentysomething bloggers went up to thank Pickens.

Inside the convention, he chatted on Fox News with Neil Cavuto and on MSNBC with Tom Brokaw. By luck, he ran into 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry, the target of $3 million in Pickens political money that bought the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth anti-Kerry ad campaign.

"I just shook hands with him," Pickens said with a shrug. When Cavuto asked him to pick his presidential favorite, he shook his head and said, "I’m out of politics."

Cavuto pressed whether he might vote for Obama.

Pickens muttered in a low voice, "Unlikely."

Afterward, he said his Republican voting pedigree goes back to a 1948 vote for nominee Thomas E. Dewey.

So he seemed almost surprised at the Democratic reception for wind energy.

"Did you see how excited that crowd was?" he asked. "I’ve found nothing but support."

He’ll see the Republicans next week. "I’ve got a mission, and I’m going to carry it out," he said. "I don’t care what it costs."

Or where he has to go.