Reply #8: Pickens

[rumpel]

T. Boone Pickens in 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.

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A more comprehensive groundwater regulatory regime is needed to prevent devastation of Texas groundwater resources. Further, Texas should abandon the Rule of Capture doctrine. Today, Texas is the only state to retain this antiquated rule.

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/us/bulksales/texas/index.cfm

and

T. Boone Pickens has been at the center of controversies surrounding Mesa. Called an "entrepreneurial populist," a corporate raider, and a greenmailer, he is accused of buying and breaking up companies and putting people out of jobs. In 1986 he started and funded a nonprofit organization called the United Shareholders Association to fund a newspaper informing shareholders of corporate abuses, and in 1987 he defended his position in a best-selling book entitled Boone. Pickens, for whom the West Texas A&M University business school is named, has served as the university's chairman of the board and supported other Texas universities. 
http://www.famoustexans.com/boonepickens.htm