Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Friday, March 30, 2007
T. Boone
You all may remember T. Boone Pickens, the oil mogul. There's a blog post at "The Mess That Greenspan Made" with an interview of Pickens on the oil situation. Take a moment and give it a read.

The short version is that peak oil is likely here and oil prices will hit $75/barrel before going back to $55/barrel.

Time to buy more oil futures.
Written at 10:42 AM by Greyhair.
3 comments
3 Comments:
Blogger Lynne said...
Several years ago I read that Pickens was buying up water rights in the midwest like mad. He can see what's coming.
11:17 AM  
Blogger Greyhair said...
I know. And the rich get richer ...

Boswell and Co., the huge farming conglomerate that farms primarily cotton on 300,000 plus acres, owns the water rights to the Kings River here in California. The estimated value of those rights is around $6 Billion. That's a "B", not a "M". It's estimated that they'll soon stop farming altogether because the water rights are worth more than the ag.
12:19 PM  
Blogger Greyhair said...
It's a fantastic story documented in the book "The King of California"

http://www.amazon.com/King-California-Boswell-Making-American/dp/1586480286

This is the history of a small farming operation gone wild, and the story of the area in which I was raised. It started in the early 1900's and it's a story of mucho political corruption.

J.G. Boswell is the one of the largest agricultural firms in the U.S., yet you've likely never heard of them (and they'd like it to stay that way which is why this book is particularly interesting as it's based on interviews with Boswell Jr. himself). They literally drained a lake in central California that was significantly larger than Lake Tahoe and planted it in cotton, using the water from the Kings River.

In short, they "bought" the water rights via state and federal legislation stretching back to FDR. It's a great read if you're interested.
12:34 PM  
Post a Comment
<< Home