Boone Pickens Loses Big On Oil, Natural Gas Bets: Wind-Farm Ads Worked Too Well
Posted by CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE at 3:36 PMBoone Pickens has been a very busy man lately, lecturing Congress about his wind and natural gas-focused energy policy, assembling a "green" army, and starring in his own commercials. Maybe he's been too busy.
The New York Post says the billionaire octogenerian's $300 oil predictions couldn't help him last month. The commodity half of Pickens' BP Capital hedge fund (which has $7 billion in total assets under management) sank about 35% in July. He can add those losses to the boot-licking he just took in Yahoo (YHOO).
"We notified our commodity-fund investors last week that the steep decline in natural gas and oil prices has had an adverse impact on our performance...We continue to analyze the market and adjust accordingly," a Pickens spokeswoman said.
For those who haven't seen his ubiquitous commercials, Pickens master energy plan is to build massive wind farms in Middle America to replace natural gas a source of electricity. Then, natural gas will be available to use as a fuel for automobiles. Where does the Middle East fit into this plan? Nowhere. Pickens has sunk multiple billions into his own wind farm already and is positioning himself as the "energy guru" for the next Presidential administration.
Needless to say, these losses are embarrasing to Pickens on many levels.