Billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who has supported many worthy free-market causes in his life, explained on the "Glenn Beck Program" Tuesday his curious support for the Democrats' totalitarian cap-and-trade legislation.
"We haven't had the leadership in Washington in 40 years to have an energy plan," Pickens complained to substitute host (retired) Judge Andrew Napolitano. Pickens has spent millions of dollars to date promoting the "Pickens Plan" that is aimed at reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
Pickens hailed the bill, sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), as "the most encompassing " energy legislation ever. The legislation, which is also backed by global warming alarmist Al Gore who compares the struggle against climate change to the war against the Nazis, would kill jobs and regulate every aspect of Americans' behavior.
Pickens said that cap-and-trade "isn't my issue" but that the measure has "some good things in it" such as its treatment of wind energy, solar energy, and provisions for electric grid modernization.
Those "good things" are government subsidies for T. Boone Pickens.
"Pickens wants to hard-wire the market to consume the things he's investing in and have the government lavish him with subsidies in the course of doing so," according to Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute.
