Billionaire oilman T. Boon Pickens has been actively promoting his energy plan. Pickens wants the private sector to build wind farms from West Texas to North Dakota and solar farms in the Southwest. This plan also contemplates obtaining easements through eminent domain so transmission lines can take electricity generated by wind and solar to other parts of the country. He compares these easements to the creation of the Interstate Highway system in the 1950s.
Pickens believes his plan will help eliminate the dependency of the United States on foreign oil. However, neither presidential candidate has committed to his proposal. Pickens has been meeting continuously with leaders from the government and private industry as well as the press to argue for his plan.