T. Boone Pickens backs Proposition 10, from which he would profit
The oil billionaire wants California to invest $5 billion in rebates to help promote use of natural gas in vehicles, though few consumers could benefit.
SACRAMENTO — Perhaps you've seen oilman T. Boone Pickens on television advertising the "Pickens Plan" for alternative energy, urging Americans to wean themselves from foreign fuel by adopting natural gas and wind power.
Pickens has another plan he isn't advertising and from which he also stands to profit. He wants Californians to borrow $5 billion to invest in natural gas and alternative energy by voting yes on Proposition 10 on the November ballot.
The Texas billionaire is the founder of Clean Energy Fuels Corp. of Seal Beach, a company that provides natural gas to fleets of vehicles, including Los Angeles garbage trucks and Oakland airport shuttle buses.
More than half of the $5 billion would be disbursed as rebates to people and companies that buy more efficient cars and trucks. Most of that rebate money is dedicated to heavy-duty trucks and vans, the kinds of fleet vehicles that are potential customers of Pickens' company.
The firm has so far spent $3.8 million to qualify and promote the initiative.
So far, financial support for the measure has come almost entirely from his company and two other natural gas businesses. State records show no money raised by opponents, which include the California League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.
Few types of passenger vehicles now on the market would qualify for the rebates besides those that burn natural gas, such as the Honda Civic GX. Such vehicles are impractical for many Californians because there are only roughly 100 natural gas refueling stations in the state open to the public, according to the California Energy Commission.
But the initiative would allocate $25 million for rebates for home refueling stations. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. paid $17 million this month to buy a Canadian company that makes such refueling devices.
Consumer Federation of California executive director Richard Holober said most hybrid vehicles, which run on either electricity or gasoline, would not qualify for rebates under Proposition 10 except for the Toyota Prius, which gets the unusually high 45 miles per gallon.
"That will get you a $2,000 rebate," Holober said at a recent legislative hearing on the ballot measure. "A natural gas Honda Civic which is purely natural gas-fueled gets you at least a $10,000 rebate, even though the state of California's website rates them as identical in clean air standards and the Prius is much more energy-efficient."
