Oil Tycoon Places $10 Billion Bet on Earth

July 16, 2008 — -- One of the nation's most successful oil tycoons believes the answer to the current energy crisis is just a gust away — literally.

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is building the world's largest wind farm in Texas, where windswept, wide-open spaces are an untapped, powerful resource.

"I don't see it as that complicated," said Pickens, who's been in the oil business his whole life. "The way I feel about the oil business, there's no question, we're in decline in the United States."

It's a decline on which he's placing a large bet. He said with $10 billion, he can help turn it around. The new farm will cover 400,000 acres and provide power for as many as 1.2 million homes.

"Nightline" traveled 200 miles with Pickens from Dallas to Sweetwater, Texas, to inspect a wind farm.

He considers himself an environmentalist, though on that day, he traveled on a private jet.

"I'm accountable for what I do," he said. "And I feel like also on the environmental issue that I do many things for the environment. So I have an airplane, but I'm 80 years old, and that's a good excuse too if you want to have an excuse."

When the plane landed, Pickens was treated like royalty. In Sweetwater wind has changed the future, and led to an economic turnaround in a place once best known for its annual rattlesnake roundup.

"This could be the greatest boons to the rural America that you could ever imagine," said Pickens. "People have jobs, make money, do well. I'm glad I'm a part of it."

Five miles out of town is the wind farm, a vast array of giant windmills stretching across the barren landscape as far as the eye can see.

Standing beneath one of the giant mills are three blades, each longer than a semi-truck, and weighing more than 7 tons. An eerie, otherworldly low frequency sound permeates the farmland.

"We have to change in this country as far as energy is concerned, because $700 billion a year to purchase foreign oil is going to bring us to our knees," said Pickens. "So … we'll see how it goes, but I think that we'll win. But I always think I'm going to win."