Wasn't T. Boone Supposed to Be Earning Money Off Green?

By Katie Fehrenbacher Aug. 14, 2008, 4:00pm PT 14 Comments

We don’t doubt that T. Boone Pickens will eventually make substantial earnings off of his green kick — including the world’s largest wind farm, and the proliferation of natural gas to power our vehicles. But Clean Energy Fuels, Pickens’ natural gas distribution company, reported earnings yesterday and, yep, it’s still losing money. The company reported a loss of $2.41 million for the quarter, though that was narrowed from a loss of $3.56 million for the same quarter a year ago.

Despite overall losses, the company’s revenues are growing — the Seal Beach, Calif.-based company reported revenues of $34.60 million for the quarter up from $30.66 million from a year ago. And actually, the company’s performing better than it has in several years. In the the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2006, Pickens, the company’s director and largest shareholder, actually had to extend the company a line of credit to meet certain margin requirements for contracts.

And beyond propping up his natural gas distribution investments, the NY Post reports yesterday that Picken’s bets on natural gas and oil commodities for his hedge fund BP Capital sank 35 percent in July — overall, they’re down 10 percent for the year. The fund, which overall manages $7 billion through two funds and is half-owned by Pickens, tells the Post that the drop was due to a more recent decline in natural gas and oil prices.

The Post thinks the lost funds are embarrassing:

Pickens’ stumbling is particularly biting since the oil-and-gas magnate has been portraying himself as a energy sage to the U.S. presidential candidates.

But perhaps a loss like this is exactly why Pickens is diversifying and placing such a large bet — $12 billion by last count — on wind. We’ll see if that, as well as his water investments, pays off.

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