A web site touting Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens’ idea  to fill energy needs went online earlier today.  The site announces the Pickens Plan:  fight the increasing demand for oil (and our dependence on foreign oil) by developing more wind energy production.

It’s a plan that North Dakota could play a significant role in.

One page on the site details the plan.  From the explanation at pickensplan.com:

In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.  Today it’s nearly 70% and growing.  As imports grow and world prices rise, the amount of money we send to foreign nations every year is soaring. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that’s four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.

And: 

Can’t we just produce more oil? 

World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn’t enough of it to keep up with demand.

The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.

North Dakota has a significant role to play in increasing wind energy production.  New wind farms are springing up all over the state.  Corporations like DMI and FLP are making significant investments in North Dakota wind power, and transmission for wind energy is fast becoming a top priority. 

On his web site, Sen. Kent Conrad explains that ND is ranked number one for having the most wind energy production potential.  The state could probably export some of that energy to the coastal regions.  

Development of the rich Bakken oil shale formation in northwestern North Dakota could help alleviate some of our nation’s energy needs, but investing in ND’s wind energy potential is a very smart move.