Wind is the lipstick on the pig. The immediate goal is a right-of-way corridor across TX which would provide transport for all of the above. Give him the rights for the transmission of electricity, and he's got everything. Even better, it looks as if he's trying to figure out how to get the tax and ratepayers to fund it.
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/us/bulksales/texas/"The notorious oilman has acquired land overlying the Ogallala aquifer and wants to pump and sell as much as 200,000 acre-feet of groundwater annually to one of Texas’ metropolitan centers.
A new undertaking by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is even more disconcerting. Pickens has been acquiring acreage overlying the Ogallala aquifer with hopes that he could pump and sell the as much as 200,000 AFY of water to one of the state’s metropolitan centers – El Paso, Lubbock, San Antonio, or Dallas-Fort Worth. Ogallala is already severely depleted. The West Texas farmers rely on the aquifer for water. The aquifer’s minimal recharge rate of less then one AFY means that its users are mining fossil water that will not be replenished.
Pickens projects that his prices would be adjusted according to the distance the water has to be pumped: El Paso would pay $1,400 per acre-foot, Dallas would pay $800, San Antonio – more than $1000. Although building a pipeline will be expensive, an estimated $1-$2 billion, these prices are still very high."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-t-boone-pickens-plan-080708-ht,0,3211333.story"Corporate raider and oilman T. Boone Pickens has been buying up water rights in the Texas Panhandle in the belief that water is going to become scarce and salable. This follows the logic that climate change, shrinking lakes and rivers and population growth will make increasing portions of the world susceptible to water shortages."
http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/texas_oilman_buying_water_wind_turbines"In order to pump the water to the metro areas, Pickens needs to build a pipeline. And in order to build a pipeline, he needs rights-of-way from private landowners. In Texas especially, where rural landowners tend to be particularly independent and typically unfazed by the predicaments of their urban neighbors, he may face an uphill battle.
Pickens, the consummate businessman, will be pushing forward with his plan, recalcitrant landowners or not. He is merely taking advantage of an opportunity. Texas has one of the fastest growing populations in the country, And four of the 12 largest cities in the U.S. are in Texas. Boone sees a viable and potentially lucrative business opportunity right in his own back yard. However, his plan is more far-reaching that just purchasing water and selling it to population centers."
http://amarillo.com/stories/032705/new_1579093.shtml""The other interesting feature of this offer," Nickum said, "is a right of first refusal not just as to the remaining 50 percent of the water left in the landowners' possession, but mineral rights. This would include a sale of minerals or a lease of minerals."
Nickum said, for example, if a landowner were approached by an oil company who wants to lease oil and gas, the landowner would be required to give Mesa Water Inc., under its right of first refusal, 15 days in which to match the offer made by the oil and gas company. Mesa Water would have the right to match the oil and gas company's offer plus a 10 percent premium."
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4275059.html"Pickens is in the planning stages of a $1.5 billion initiative to pump billions of gallons of water from an ancient aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and build pipelines to ship them to thirsty cities such as Dallas. So far, no city has taken up his water company, Mesa Water, on the offer. But company officials and experts agree that a continuation of the drought impacting large portions of the United States could turn Pickens into something of a water baron. His yet-to-be-built pipeline would follow the same 250-mile corridor as electric lines carrying power from his wind farms. Pickens prompted the creation of a public water supply district, run by his employees, that can claim private land for the pipeline route through eminent domain. (Follow the pipeline's path here.)
A drought has drained water from Texas and much of the rest of the United States. That could make water an increasingly profitable commodity for those who hold the rights. According to his Web site, Pickens owns rights to more water than anyone else. "In general, there's a lot of it, it's just not in the right place," says Robert Stillwell, legal counsel for Mesa Water (and board member of the water supply district), which continues to acquire water rights in rural Texas. He dismisses questions about whether the water would be cost-competitive. For cities looking at their future water needs, he says, "cost becomes irrelevant." As far as Mesa's pipeline snaking across the Texas heartland, Stillwell insists that "it's going to happen, it's just a matter of when.""
Proposed pipeline map:
http://www.robertscountyfwsd.com/pdf/RCFWSDLetter.pdf
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