Back in the Heat

by Pa Rock

Our traveling show arrived back in Goodyear, AZ, late this afternoon. It was an uneventful trip home. We stopped a few places and took pictures of the amazing mountains of round rocks that Interstate 8 passes through between El Centro and San Diego. We also took pictures of the energy windmills that line the last ridge of hills before the highway begins its long descent into San Diego.

Not being in a hurry to get home, we made a couple other excursions along the way. We pulled into a little cafe, gift shop, and date grove called Dateland, where Boone had a date shake that he really liked. (I had tried one on my previous trip and found it to be far too sweet, even for me!) We also stopped at a gift shop in Gila Bend, where the old timer that runs the place (think Desert Pete) gives out cold bottled water free to everyone who stops in to peruse his wares. It's the desert, he says, and people need plenty of water! Gila Bend is just across the border from Ajo, Mexico, and he gets his art work and assorted merchandize directly from the Mexican artisans in the Ajo area. The man has a nice shop with very reasonably priced items. I bought my second piece of horsehair pottery there today, and Nick made a few purchases as well. The clever businessman ended our transactions by giving us our change in John Quincy Adams dollars!

Tonight Nick and Boone are swimming in one of the pools at my apartment complex, and I am contemplating unpacking. They are leaving tomorrow at 5 a.m., and I already miss them. This long weekend has not nearly been long enough!

Windmills and Gas Tanks

by Pa Rock

I heard a gentleman from Colorado talking about energy this morning on NPR as I was getting ready for work. He said that he favored John McCain because of his stance on energy. McCain wants to drill for more oil. This fellow said that he personally likes the idea of windmills and nuclear plants (renewable resources), but neither would put more gas in his car.

I'm glad that people are thinking in terms of energy, but these are the facts as I know them. More oil drilling will mean more oil on the world market, but not here in the United States. Our refineries are already running at full capacity. So, yeah, drilling for more oil might make us feel good (McCain's psychological cure for the recession), but it won't put more gas in our tanks, at least not in the foreseeable future. More oil drilling would, however, continue to deplete a finite resource - one that our children's children may one day truly need -and it will continue to pose constant risks to the environment - especially in the off-shore drilling that McCain lusts after, or in the Arctic National Refuge where drilling continues to be the wet dream of the far right lunatic fringe.

Surprisingly, windmills (and even the dreaded nuclear power plants) can put more gas in your tank, and, in the case of windmills, they can get the gas to your tank much quicker than drilling can. T. Boone Pickens, himself a proud part of the far right lunatic fringe, happens to be right on windmills. His argument is that as windmills go on line to produce more electricity, they will free up natural gas that is used in some areas for the production of electricity. The technology is already at hand to make cars that can run on natural gas - and they run cleaner and cheaper than the ones that we rely on today. So, fields of windmills could quickly provide combustible fuel that is cleaner and cheaper. What's wrong with that?

And don't forget that hybrid cars are already here, and electric cars are in the pipeline (excuse the bad pun). GM has announced that its Chevy Volt will be on the market in two years.

McCain has recently had a big influx of campaign cash from the oil industry. They would love to open up our coastal areas and the Alaskan wilderness for more drilling. And when that new oil starts gushing, it will follow the market - all the way to China!

We've danced to big oil's tune for over a century. It's time for a change!

www.pickensplan.com

I get to work very early every morning, and then kill time by sitting outside the office in my car - eating my sausage egg McMuffin and listening to National Public Radio. Most mornings, when its not too hot, I will read a chapter or two from my book de jour before going in and starting another day at work. Usually my routine is just that - routine.

This morning while I was eating and tearing off small bits of bread to feed to the loud and pushy desert birds, NPR came on with a segment that caught my interest and stayed with me the rest of the day. T. Boone Pickens, a rich Texas arch-conservative who made his money sucking the people's oil out of the ground and selling it back to them, was on the radio plugging his new energy plan - a monumental wind farm in the Texas panhandle that will be able to provide electricity to 1.3 million homes. I was so taken by what he was saying, that I came home and began researching the topic.

Pickens is 80-years-old and seems to have finally figured out that greed really wasn't going to be much of a legacy. His plan is more than just a big wind farm, he is organizing a movement (www.pickensplan.com) to change the way America thinks about energy - and to force our political leaders to factor his ideas into a national dialogue on energy.

His plan is simple: use wind resources to replace the natural gas that currently goes into the production of electricity, and use that natural gas to power cars and lower our dependence on foreign oil.

Did you know, according to T. Boone, that there could be enough wind turbines placed in the windy state of North Dakota to provide all of America's electricity needs? Talk about an economic bonanza for North Dakota! And with those turbines, other complementary land uses can happen - such as grazing cattle.

I moved from Kentucky to Arizona last fall. My son drove the truck while I followed along in my car. When we hit southwest Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, we saw hundreds of these large, beautiful windmills. I telephoned Nick in the truck and told him we were seeing the future. And we were!

T. Boone Pickens, you're a beautiful person! Better late than never!