Piecemeal Pickens plan may benefit Kansas

T. Boone Pickens has reconsidered his idea to build a massive wind farm in Texas and instead looks to scatter turbines across middle America, according to a newspaper report.

The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that Pickens has moved off his plan to build a 1,000-megawatt farm in Pampa, Texas. Pickens is apparently worried that he won’t have the ability to transmit the power his turbines generate.

The panhandle’s loss could be Kansas’ gain. The Morning News reports that officials at Pickens’ company, Mesa Power, are considering six sites for smaller wind farms, “including places in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.”

Pickens is committed to wind power after ordering a batch of turbines from General Electric. “I don’t have that big a garage to put them in, so I’ve got to start getting ready to use them,” he told the newspaper.