An Oilman for Wind Power?

T. Boone Pickens is an Oklahoma billionaire who made his fortune largely on the oil industry. In this commercial, he outlines his plan to vigorously boost the proportion of energy we get from wind power:

The Seminal's Jim Moss describes what Pickens' plan hopes to achieve.

The Pickens Plan proposes building massive wind power facilities from the Texas panhandle all the way to North Dakota. This would reportedly supply 20% of our nation's electricity needs, as well as providing economic boosts to many regions through the production and maintenance of these facilities.

A boost in wind power would free up the natural gas supplies which are currently being used for 22% of our electricity generation - which could then in turn be used to power NGV's, or natural gas-powered vehicles - which would reduce significantly our usage of petroleum - which would free us from our dependency on foreign oil.

So why is someone so tied to the oil and natural gas industries such a big proponent of wind power? Well, for one, he also has major investments in the -- you guessed it -- wind industry. Should we take Pickens seriously? Moss advises "watch[ing] his commercials with a very skeptical eye and see[ing] what his next move is." I tend to agree.

UPDATE: The Progress Report highlights a Senate committee meeting today featuring none other than T. Boone Pickens.  The bloggers at The Progress Report were more openly sanguine about the Pickens Plan, comparing it to Al Gore's WeCanSolveIt campaign.