Thanks to his acquisition of more than 1 million acres of timberland, Liberty Media chairman John Malone vaulted in the No. 1 spot, unseating his good friend and business partner Ted Turner. Malone readily admits that he got the “land-buying disease” after touring a Turner ranch. In addition to Malone and Turner, other high-profile landowners featured in the 2011 Land Report 100 include Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos at No. 28, hedge fund manager Louis Bacon at No. 45,  and the Hearst family at No. 63.

The cover story features Oklahoma’s Bob Funk, whose Express Ranches is recognized as one of the top seedstock producers in the cattle industry. Readers will journey with Funk to the UU Bar Ranch, a New Mexico landmark that straddles the historic Santa Fe Trail at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

The digital version of The Land Report can be accessed via your laptop, on your iPad or iPhone, with your Blackberry, as well as on your Android.

Click HERE or just type in the following URL: http://read.dmtmag.com/issue/44511

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Published reports point to a potential new leader atop The Land Report 100. Colorado’s John Malone, who closed on the 290,100-acre Bell Ranch in August 2010, is scheduled to add an additional 1+ million acres in Maine and New Hampshire to his holdings this week. When added to his existing portfolio of 1.2 million acres, it would be enough acreage to vault him from No. 5 on The Land Report 100 to No. 1, ahead of the Irving Family, Brad Kelley, Red Emmerson, and the current No. 1, Ted Turner.

The story is making national news, including an article by Katherine Seelye in The New York Times titled “For Land Barons, Acres By the Millions.” Wrote Seelye,

John C. Malone, a media mogul who is on the verge of buying nearly one million acres of timberland in Maine, could soon become the largest private landowner in the United States, catapulting him ahead of Ted Turner on the list of those who accumulate earth the way others accumulate, say, bison.

The Times quoted Land Report Editor Eric O’Keefe, who noted that “… when the tabulations are done and this transaction closes, Mr. Malone definitely will be America’s largest landowner.”

According to the Portland Press Herald, Malone’s BBC LLC will acquire 1,004,346 acres belonging to GMO Renewable Resources, a forest investment management company:

“The acquisition will  give Malone ownership of more than 5 percent of Maine’s total land mass of 22 million acres. All but about 30,000 acres of his purchase is in Maine with the remainder in New Hampshire.“

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This year marks the fourth time The Land Report has presented the top 100 landowners in the country. And it also marks the fourth time that Ted Turner has topped our list. In 2010, Turner added to his chart-topping 2 million-plus acres by acquiring Nonami Plantation near Albany, Georgia. The acquisition is a notable one because Nonami ranks as the largest property for the entrepreneur, environmentalist, philanthropist, and media mogul in the state where he was raised.

Nonami Plantation adds 8,800 acres to the 15 ranches Turner owns in seven states, and it is considered one of the finest quail hunting venues in the Peach State. Turner purchased the plantation from a longtime business associate, Atlanta developer Tom Cousins, in a private transaction.

“Tom and Ted have been good friends for many years,” says Turner spokesman Phillip Evans. “From what I understand they made a gentlemen’s agreement years ago. If Tom ever decided to sell, Ted would get first option to purchase the property. They both appreciate what a special piece of land it is.”

Much of the property is already under a conservation easement. “As with all of Turner’s land, Nonami will be managed in an environmentally and ecologically friendly manner,” Evans adds.

Turner’s record as a landowner proves that he is nothing if not dedicated to running his holdings in a way that promotes the conservation of both the land itself and native species. In particular, Turner is known for his conservation of buffalo.

His 50,000+ is the world’s largest private herd. He recently offered to shelter 87 bison from Yellowstone National Park for five years as part of an experiment by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to establish a free-roaming herd free of brucellosis and other diseases that can spread to cattle. After the five years, the bison will be returned to the State of Montana, and Turner will keep a percentage of the herd’s offspring.

Innovative solutions to ensure the continuation of endangered species are but one facet of Turner’s stewardship philosophy. Another lies in clean, renewable energy. In January 2010, Turner Renewable Energy partnered with Southern Company to develop renewable energy resources on his properties as well as off. Their first project, New Mexico’s Cimarron Solar Facility, will be one of the nation’s largest photovoltaic plants, generating enough energy to supply 9,000 homes with electricity. Cimarron, which is scheduled to begin commercial operation in late 2010, is located next to Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch, the largest privately owned ponderosa pine ecosystem in the nation.

The Cimarron plant is yet another example of how Turner backs up his opinions with concrete action. He has been increasingly vocal about his belief that the United States should move toward more sustainable forms of energy, and he has gone as far as to lobby Congress on renewable energy and climate issues. It goes hand in hand with his desire to use his clout and his land to make the world a better place for his—and our—children and grandchildren.

Download the 2010 Land Report 100 HERE.

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On August 17, Liberty Media CEO John Malone bought the 290,100-acre Bell Ranch, an event that qualifies as the largest single ranch sale since Ted Turner bought Vermejo Park from Pennzoil in 1996.  Price and terms on the $83-million listing were not disclosed.

Odds are you already know New Mexico’s Bell Ranch. At 453 square miles, it’s kind of hard to overlook. But to focus on size alone is to overlook a much richer story. The Bell has been featured in countless Westerns and dramatically depicted on millions of Stetson hatboxes. If you’re old enough to remember when tobacco companies could advertise, the ranch’s mesas and pastures were the timeless backdrop in many a Marlboro print campaign. Few venues epitomize the American West like the gorgeous grasslands, stunning mesas, and rugged rimrock canyons surrounding the distinctive bell-shaped mountain a short ride north of the Canadian River.

The Bell Ranch is a place of lore and legend whose contemporary history dates back to an impossibly large land grant of some 656,000 acres by the Mexican government to Pablo Montoya in 1824. Only the hills know how long the Comanche, the Kiowa, and the Apache made camp along the banks of La Cinta Creek before the Spanish army officer petitioned Mexico City for his lands.

Almost two centuries have passed since Don Pablo took title to more than 1,000 square miles of what eventually became the New Mexico Territory. Its ideal setting—the ranch ranges in elevation from 4,200 to 5,600 feet above sea level—is more reminiscent of the African Serengeti than the Great Plains or the Llano Estacado. Top-notch cowmen such as the pioneering trailblazer Charlie Goodnight have long marveled at the ranch’s plentiful waters, its protein-rich grasses, and the temperate climate. The lure of this remote cattle kingdom is so strong that the Bell has enticed five formidable men to commit themselves to shepherding the ranch since 1933: Albert Mitchell, George Ellis, Don Hofman, Rusty Tinnin, and Bert Ancell, the general manager, who had 41 years of experience on the Bell. Half a dozen hands with an average of 15 years service on the Bell worked with Ancell.

This peerless legacy is one of the many priceless assets that make the Bell more than simply another big spread. Take, for instance, the ranch’s horse breeding program, which can be traced back to a remount herd used by the U.S. cavalry almost a century ago. The ranch has also developed a closed composite breed of cattle. Known as RedBell, the breed consists of carefully selected Red Angus and Hereford bloodlines, plus smaller percentages of Brahma and Gelbvieh. And of course there is also the ranch’s iconic one-iron brand. First registered in San Miguel County in 1875, it has been in continuous use ever since.

After more than a century in operation, the Bell was carved into six tracts and parceled off after the end of the Second World War. But for William Lane II, its legacy would have ended with this dissolution. In 1970, the chairman and chief executive of General Binding Corporation purchased the 130,000-acre headquarters tract near the center of the Montoya Grant, and over the next six years he dedicated himself to rebuilding the great ranch. Ultimately, he acquired a total of 290,100 acres, an astounding 44 percent of the original grant.

Lane and his family also put in place improvements that dramatically enhanced beef production. Seven large operating units are cordoned off by 342 miles of fence and connected by 530 miles of interior roads. Ninety miles of pipeline water 206 stock tanks and 117 wells and windmills. The end result is a world-class working cattle ranch that can support 5,000 animal units.

In 2006, the Lane family began its quest to find another steward for the Bell. Several leading brokerages marketed the property, including Mason and Morse Ranch Company and Orvis Cushman & Wakefield. But the Great Recession took its toll. The original asking price of $110 million was lowered to $99 million and then to $83 million in 2010 (not including livestock).

The one constant throughout this process was Patrick Bates of Bates Sanders Swan Land Company, who was brought on to consult for the Lane family in 2006; by 2010 he was the broker of record. In March, Ron Morris of Ranch Marketing Associates contacted him. Like Bates, Morris is a veteran ranch broker with an impressive C.V. His client was none other than John Malone, Liberty Media’s CEO and one of the most respected stewards of the land in Rockies. A new chapter in the history of the Bell was about to begin.

Download the 2010 Land Report 100 HERE.

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The big move in this year’s top ten is Liberty Media CEO John Malone, whose purchase of the 290,000-acre Bell Ranch this August leapfrogged him ahead of the King Ranch Heirs and the Singleton Family to No. 5 at 1.2 million acres. Thanks to his conservation-minded land ownership, Malone has earned many friends (both two-legged and four-legged) over the years. In an interview on Bloomberg in July, Malone said that his friend Ted Turner was partly his inspiration. “It is sort of a lasting economic asset, and if you are charitably minded and you like conservation, you sort of can do well by doing good,” he said. “I own a lot of land. In fact, Ted and I are neighbors in New Mexico.”

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Forbes.com bills itself as the “Home Page for the World’s Business Leaders,” and on Monday the website lived up to its moniker by profiling the top ten U.S. landowners as featured in The Land Report 100. Among the many names familiar to Forbes readers were CNN founder Ted Turner at No. 1 and Liberty Media head honcho John Malone at No. 7.

The website also made a point of singling out several notable news items that have recently run at LandReport.com, including Hall and Hall’s recent listing of the 62,000-acre N Bar Ranch in Montana for $45 million and the sale of Colorado’s Boot Jack Ranch by Telluride broker Bill Fandel for $47 million.

Land Report Editor Eric O’Keefe was quoted as describing current market conditions as follows:

“Investors are no longer sitting on the sidelines, and sellers want liquidity.”

Read the entire article HERE.

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America’s largest landowner is full speed ahead on his renewable energy venture. Turner Renewable Energy and Southern Co. acquired a 30 megawatt (AC) photovoltaic solar power project that is being developed by First Solar (FSLR) adjacent to Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch in northern New Mexico. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Cimarron I Solar Project will supply power to approximately 9,000 homes, or 18,000 residents, and displace over 45,000 tons of CO₂ per year. Electricity generated by the plant will serve a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a not-for-profit wholesale power supplier to 44 electric cooperatives serving 1.4 million customers across New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. First Solar will also provide operation and maintenance services under a 25-year contract.

Construction of Cimarron I will began this month. Commercial operation is expected to commence by year end 2010. The solar project will employ approximately 500,000 photovoltaic modules manufactured by First Solar using its advanced thin film technology and will create more than 200 jobs during peak construction.

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Ted Turner has announced a strategic alliance with Atlanta-based Southern Company to pursue development of renewable energy projects in the Southwestern United States, including his New Mexico land holdings. Turner is the state’s largest landowner.

“I’ve always been passionate about developing renewable energy, and I’m excited to join forces with Southern Company to explore our renewable energy potential,” said Turner, who will pursue the venture through Turner Renewable Energy.

“Southern Company’s experience in power project development, construction and operations, and customer relations help make this a strong alliance, and I look forward to working together,” he added.

Turner Renewable Energy and Southern Company will focus on developing and investing in large scale solar photovoltaic projects in the Desert Southwest with the goal of further commercializing the technology and making it more cost competitive.

“This alliance unites our common goal to explore and develop new renewable energy projects,” said Southern Company CEO David Ratcliffe. “We have said for some time that renewable energy should play an increasing role in this country’s energy mix and that Southern Company would seek opportunities to expand our renewable portfolio where it makes sense. This is evidence of that commitment.”

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Want an opportunity to meet the top gun on The Land Report 100 on one of his many ranches? Now you can, thanks to a Montana fundraiser. Tickets to tour Ted Turner’s 119,000-acre Flying D Ranch are still available, and they’re going for $1,500. Proceeds go to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition; Turner is a board member.

Your $1,500 fee gets you a driving tour of the ranch from the nation’s largest landowner, cocktails on his back porch, and a dinner featuring ranch-raised bison. Turner has the world’s largest private herd of bison, which he raises on the Flying D and markets through his restaurant concept, Ted’s Montana Grill, with over 50 locations in 18 states.

At last report 10 of the 60 tickets remained.

Read more at:
“Enviro Group Plans Fundraiser at Turner Ranch,” Billings Gazette, June 5, 2009.

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Outside, the Midwest summer sun has pushed the temperature well above 100. Inside Topeka’s Heritage Hall, it’s standing room only, and there’s still half an hour to go before Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius takes the stage to introduce T. Boone Pickens at the very first Pickens Plan town hall meeting. The fire marshal has already collared building personnel and informed them that the capacity crowd of 500 exceeds the city’s fire code. Over the next half hour, hundreds more show up. All are barred from entering, yet not one of them turns away. Instead, they choose to sit outside in the scorching heat and listen in over the public address system.

Farmers in overalls and work boots, school kids in jeans, a Senate candidate in the requisite blue blazer and repp tie—the Pickens army is mustering for its first official review. The focus of its mission—to develop renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and use them along with other domestic fuels to curb America’s addiction to foreign oil—is a natural fit for Kansas.

Crops, cattle, oil and gas—the Sunshine State is a commodities-producing powerhouse, and today’s gathering lures Republicans and Democrats, rural folk and city slickers, entrepreneurs and environmentalists. Furthermore, the state sits smack-dab in the middle of the nation’s Wind Belt, a 1,000-mile corridor extending the length of the Great Plains from West Texas to the Canadian border that according to Department of Energy estimates can produce 20 percent of the country’s electrical needs.

This enormous untapped power plant is one of the central pillars of the Pickens Plan, and its importance is emphasized by Gov. Sebelius as she introduces Pickens. Confident and easygoing with her constituents, she puts the “town” in town hall meeting by setting a comfortable, conversational tone. The governor points out that Kansas is one of the windiest states in the country “even when the legislature is not in session.”

After the laughter subsides, Pickens accepts the microphone. He spends the next hour briefing his troops: detailing the progress of the Pickens Plan, emphasizing how he hopes the country’s energy plight will take center stage in the presidential campaign, and encouraging the audience to monitor developments in real time at www.PickensPlan.com.

He acts anything but his 80 years, pacing back and forth on stage as he cites an endless list of figures off the top of his head, ranging from the demand for oil domestically and around the world to production percentages for energy in the U.S. In his trademark whiteboard presentation, he details the possibilities for reducing America’s dependence on imported oil by more than 30 percent by the end of the next decade. His solution? Use wind energy for power generation, and shift part of the country’s natural gas production into transportation for fleet operators and mass transit.

A good portion of the meeting is reserved for questions from the audience. A wide array of topics is broached. As the Q&A progresses, it becomes apparent that the Pickens Plan is starting to take on a life of its own. The idea of securing America’s energy security casts a wide net. Trained as a geologist at Oklahoma State, Pickens has spent five decades in the petrochemical industry. Now he’s being asked to discuss a much broader range of topics: rechargeable power cells, specific local utility regulations, and the possibility of utilizing geothermal energy.

On several occasions, Pickens hammers home a point by bringing up his wife, Madeleine, and the key role she played in instigating the Pickens Plan. At home late at night or during their travels, she was the one most likely to have to listen to his insistent complaints about the country’s lack of an energy plan. “Why are you always telling me about this?” he tells the crowd she would ask him. “Why don’t you just do something about it yourself?” Heads nod among the couples in the audience. The fact that the Texas billionaire has a wife who tells him to put up or shut up wins big points.

The biggest applause line occurs when the career oil man is faced with a question about fuel cells and alternative energies. Caught flat-footed, he admits his ignorance and then quickly parries with a question of his own about the energy source. “Is it American?” he asks. When informed that it is, he responds, “Then I’m for it. I’m for anything American.” The crowded hall bursts into cheers.

Although a great deal of effort went into the logistics and planning of the first Pickens Plan town meeting, in essence it was a throwback to the sort of political barnstorming rarely seen nowadays. Unscripted,
deeply personal, and punctuated by quick wit and pithy quips, it was as close to Harry Truman’s 1948 Whistle Stop Tour as America is likely to see in this day and age. The populist appeal of the messenger has proven to be a crucial factor in the success of the Pickens Plan.

Backing it up, however, is a $58 million marketing campaign funded by Pickens himself that is built around a barrage of TV commercials and a full-out assault on the Internet. Pickens and his plan can be accessed via his Facebook page, his MySpace profile, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. Newsweek has labeled the 80-year-old “the Web’s first senior blog star,” and the success of his website proves it. Since its launch in early July, www.PickensPlan.com has become one of the most popular sites on the Internet. More than 250,000 have signed up as supporters; the number of visits has surpassed 6 million. According to Quantcast, it ranks as one of the top 1,000 worldwide.

Pickens increases the reach of his message with a torrent of media appearances. Wolf Blitzer, Neil Cavuto, Lou Dobbs, Don Imus, Larry King—he’s appeared on all of their shows as well as ABC’s Nightline, CNN’s American Morning, NBC’s Squawk Box, NPR’s Morning Edition, and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. The day of the Topeka town hall meeting his first stop was in Wichita, where he sat down for an hour-long meeting with the Op-Ed board of the Wichita Eagle, a process he has repeated with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune, among others.

Throughout his career, Pickens has developed a repertoire of sayings he calls Booneisms. I got to hear many of them firsthand earlier this year when I assisted him by editing his memoir The First Billion is the Hardest (Crown), which has just arrived in bookstores and has already made The New York Times bestseller list. Many of them are straightforward, including this favorite of mine: “As my father used to say, ‘There are three reasons we can’t do it. First, we don’t have the money, and it doesn’t make a damn about the other two.’” Other Booneisms are character builders more in the tradition of Ben Franklin: “Show up early. Work hard. Stay late. Work eight hours and sleep eight hours, and make sure that they are not the same eight hours.”

The one he uses to describe his energy plan goes right to the point: “A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan any day.” Pickens initially outlined his ideas for reducing the country’s dependency on foreign oil in the final chapter of The First Billion, which he titled “The Big Idea: An Energy Plan for America.” It’s an audacious proposal that relies as much on forward thinking as it does his decades of experience.

“Over the next fifty years the United States is going to need much more wind, solar, and other alternative energies. We have to get into these businesses. There’s no way we can generate the energy we need the way we’re doing things today. The future is in renewables. We need a visionary step forward. We need leadership to say, ‘This is what we must do to win the war against foreign oil and end our dangerous and fatal addiction. Here’s a new idea. A bold idea,’” he writes.

This bold idea came to Pickens on his Mesa Vista ranch in Roberts County, Texas. “It’s where I call home,” he writes. “I honestly cannot tell you how much I enjoy being on my ranch. I’ve given serious thought to living in Roberts County and commuting to Dallas.”

Pickens first set eyes on the Panhandle property in the early 1960s while quail hunting. In 1971 he acquired his initial tract, a 2,940-acre parcel along the Canadian River. Since then the Mesa Vista has grown to more than 68,000 acres with 24 miles of frontage along the Canadian. (Follow the river 300 miles downstream and one arrives at Pickens’ hometown of Holdenville, Oklahoma.)

Pickens has spent millions improving the ranch, putting in more than 50 miles of water lines and planting more than 10,000 mature sycamores, cottonwoods, pines, pears, and lilacs. To accommodate his Gulfstream 550, he installed a 6,000-foot concrete runway complete with adjacent hangar. The Mesa Vista’s two magnificent residences redefine the term “home on the range.”

Pickens long believed that the Mesa Vista’s most important resource was its wildlife: Pronghorn antelope, whitetailed and mule deer, turkey, pheasant, and blue and bobwhite quail. In the eastern reaches of the Texas Panhandle, the demand for outstanding recreational properties is far greater than cattle ranches. Thanks to the rugged terrain, irrigated farming is rarely an option. There was the one critical aspect to the Mesa Vista that the lifelong oil man couldn’t get over. “It’s the only place I’ve ever been where I couldn’t drill a dry hole,” he says. Beneath his 100-section ranch, the same Ogallala Aquifer that waters huge commercial farming operations farther west can be found. Only no one was using it.

Pickens describes this water as “stranded and surplus.” He became so intrigued by the possibilities that he formed Mesa Water to market his holdings and those of other Panhandle landowners. According to the Pickens Plan website, he is now the largest private holder of permitted groundwater rights in the country. Although his water project has become a $3 billion deal, to Pickens its true importance is that it led him to the Big Kahuna. “Wind is a $10 billion deal. It’s easier than water. It’s bigger than water. Best of all, it complements water,” he writes in The First Billion.

His willingness to embrace the possibilities of wind power as a hugely profitable renewable energy offers telling insight into the mindset of the legendary entrepreneur who turned Wall Street on its ear in the 1980s when he began drilling for oil on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. In his New York Times column, Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman recently described Pickens as “the green billionaire Texas oilman now obsessed with wind power.” Pickens lives up to that billing when he extols wind as practical. With or without production tax credits, it’s profitable. Unlike oil and gas, it has no decline curve. There’s also a huge patriotic component, which Pickens makes clear when he seizes on the fact that America is enriching its enemies by spending four times the cost of the Iraqi war to buy imported oil.

“We are the Saudi Arabia of wind. Look at this here,” he says. It’s the day after his Topeka town hall meeting, and Pickens is pointing to a map of the United States. Although he’s back in Dallas at the corporate headquarters of his investment firm, BP Capital, he’s still pitching the Pickens Plan. This time it’s to America’s largest landowner. Ted Turner is one of many individuals that Pickens has stress-tested his plan with, including Warren Buffett, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, GE’s Jeff Immelt, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, Presidents Bush and Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and former Vice President Al Gore. But as the owner of 15 ranches in seven states and approximately 2 million acres of land, he is uniquely capable of profiting from the Pickens Plan.

“Boone,” Turner says, shaking his head in disbelief. “You are the map king. I’ve never seen so many maps in my life.” The two are standing in the main conference room at BP Capital. Hydrographic tables, global wind diagrams, solar radiation charts, elevation data, topographic maps, ranch surveys—every inch of wall space is plastered with different schematics. “That’s where my 500,000 acres is, right around there in the reddest part,” Turner says. He’s pointing to a section of a solar map that details western New Mexico, site of his Armendaris and Ladder ranches. “We could take 100,000 acres of it and cover them with solar panels, and I wouldn’t even know it because I hunt on the other 400,000 acres. I’ve already got it; it’s ready to go,” he says.

A buffet lunch follows. In addition to Pickens and Turner, seated at the table are two members of the
BP Capital team: Bobby Stillwell, Pickens’ longtime lawyer, as well as Chris Busbee, who specializes in renewable energies. It’s not the first time Pickens and Stillwell have met with Turner. In the mid 1980s, both MESA and Turner Broadcasting were considering a run at RCA. Several meetings took place. Nothing much came of the endeavor, a point they all laugh off.

In presenting his plan, Pickens recites many of the same reasons he mentioned at the town hall meeting the day before. With Turner, however, he adds an extra consideration, one of great personal significance.

“Revitalizing rural America is very, very important,” he says. “I came from a small town in Oklahoma. I’ve seen everything just go downhill, downhill, downhill, year after year after year. And I’m convinced that half the kids that come from small towns don’t ever adjust to the big city. They really would like to go back home, but they have no opportunity. There are no careers for them,” he says.

Pickens singles out the economic impact of wind energy on Sweetwater, the county seat of Nolan County, Texas. A ranching and farming community, Sweetwater’s population peaked in the 1950s before beginning a precipitous decline. High school graduating classes, which once numbered as many as 200, fell to a low of 90. Beginning in 2000, however, wind farms capable of producing more than 3,000 megawatts of electricity have been constructed by Florida Power & Light, Babcock & Brown, and AES Wind Generation. The economic impact has been astonishing.

This year alone more than 1,100 jobs with a payroll of $45 million were directly related to wind energy. School district property taxes paid by wind energy projects exceeded $12 million, and from 2004 through 2010 a total of $24 million will go into new school construction. Pickens’ own wind project will be substantially larger than Sweetwater’s, and the revitalization of Pampa has already begun. Pickens sees this economic upturn extending the length of Wind Belt from Sweetwater through Pampa and north to Goodland, Kan., Hastings, Neb., and beyond.

Pickens singles out another big winner: landowners. According to a study prepared for the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium, royalties paid to landowners in the Sweetwater/Nolan County region will total more than $12 million in 2008. Turner jumps on the figure and begins to quiz Pickens and Busbee on the number of turbines per section, the amount of electricity generated, its market value, and the royalty structure. Natural gas, timber, livestock, ecotourism — his 2 million acres enjoy numerous revenue streams, but none with the potential of renewable energy.

“I love your attitude. By God, it’s my chance to be Boone Pickens’ partner after 30 years of hiatus,” Turner says, before adding, “There has never been such a win-win situation. And we’d have cleaner air, we’d also combat global warming. There’s no downside to this. There is not any downside for America to do this. Right, Boone?

“That’s right,” Pickens says.

By the end of lunch, Pickens has added one more name to the growing list of supporters of the Pickens Plan. As the two get ready to leave BP Capital and fly out to the Mesa Vista Ranch, Pickens points out that some people take umbrage at the thought of putting up 40-story turbines the length of the Great Plains. Turner disagrees:

“I think they look great, and I’m not talking about money. I think they look great because they look clean, and they make my country free.”

Since this story was written, Boone Pickens has subsequently met with both of the presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, and attended the Democratic and the Republican National Conventions, where he spoke with numerous state caucuses.

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