T. Boone Pickens is looking to President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration to facilitate renewables financing, following a slowdown of traditional lending due to market turmoil.
"We had [lenders] standing on line about a year ago...There's no way to finance a wind project right now," the Texas oilman turned wind developer said last Monday at Barclays Capital's commodities client conference in New York.
A 10-year extension of production tax credits to boost tax equity investment and the new administration's possible interest in creating jobs in renewables would encourage financing and development in the sector, Pickens noted. Mesa Power, a subsidiary of Pickens' BP Capital, is developing a $7 billion, 4 GW wind project in Pampa, Texas (PFR, 7/11). The project's 667-turbine order from General Electric arrives in 2010, he said.