T.Boone Pickens, Smart Like a Fox

T. Boone Pickens is spending (or is it investing) 60 million of his fortune into pushing environmental responsibility and reduction on foreign oil as a matter of national defense. T.Boone is smart like a fox.  As a believer in our system that rewards initiative and talent with wealth, I think T.Boone and his advisers have come up with a slick marketing and business plan that will ultimately yield handsome returns on this investment. Before T.Boone was filling our airwaves with his message that we must shift our economy away from foreign oil, he was busy investing in natural gas and compressed natural gas technology.  He acquired the nation’s largest provider of natural gas for transportation, is a partner in a 160 million dollar project to develop a mass market CNG powered vehicle, and has invested heavily in wind energy companies.

Some environmentalists are piously claiming that T.Boone’s motivations are not pure and that he is pushing energy independence not as good citizen but rather as a greedy capitalist.  Others claim he has gone too far in pushing the political system in California to pass the now controversial Proposition 10 that supports a handful of green initiatives, but primarily gives tax incentives and rebates to buyers of natural gas based vehicles.

Is it really wrong for a company or individual to invest in marketing or lobbying that supports past  business decisions? T.Boone is sounding a resonant chord that has more than just a ring of truth and allows him to simultaneously raise the value of his personal investment in alternative energy.  Is it a brilliant financial move or is T.Boone, the national benefactor, unselfishly using his wealth to help clean our environment and move to energy independence?  In a market where alternative energy investment has been growing at a steady and growing 25% a year, we should all take a lesson that for this brief moment in history, a good capitalist can promote a clean environment and generate personal financial growth.