Pickens Plan Putters Out - Cheap Natural Gas + Lack of Transmission Pull Pampa's Plug

photo: Center for American Progress Action Fund via flickr.

It's been a slow fall for the highly touted, much anticipated, it'll save us all from foreign oil, climate change, and even paint our houses Pickens Plan. The once colossal, then reduce, then postponed until 2013 Pampa Wind Farm at its core has been finally pulled "off the table" by T. Boone himself, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pickens says if Texas makes greater investments in the transmission lines needed to bring all that electricity from the wind farms way out in the middle of nowhere into the cities where demand is, "we'll be back."

Pickens also cited low natural gas prices, saying that "you can't finance wind farms very well when natural gas is under $6." That's per BTU and it's currently at just under $5.75.

In case you've already forgotten the saga (and it's got some interesting twists, including big water rights grabs) here's a rundown on the Pickens Plan:

• Pickens Plans for Texas Wind Farm Scaled Way Back


• As the Financial Crisis Hits Home, is T. Boone Pickens Selling Wind Turbines?


• The Pickens Plan and T. Boone Pickens Water Rights Grab (Video)


• T. Boone Pickens Talks Natural Gas, Energy Independence, Peak Oil and Swift Boating with Katie Couric


• Wind Power to Displace Natural Gas for Electricity, Natural Gas to Power Cars: The Pickens Plan


• Water Pipeline Not Wind Power, Real Reason Pickens Can Build Transmission Lines


• T. Boone Pickens Gets Into The Texas Wind: 4,000 Mega-Watts Worth