Fitial, who will attend the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, said the most interesting part of the gathering is the opportunity to meet with very successful people like Pickens.
Named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009, Pickens is one of America’s foremost advocates of renewable energy.
His Mesa Power Group carries out projects throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The American Wind Energy Association named him its 2009 Industry Person of the Year for “his vision and leadership in moving the wind industry forward.”
Fitial, who wants the islands’ geothermal potentials explored, said he will discuss his plan with Pickens.
“He is an authority on renewable energy,” said Fitial who met Pickens twice while attending wo of his speaking engagements.
The governor said he was amazed by Pickens’ hydrogen-powered car which the billionaire drives from house to work.
“He never uses anything other than his car and his airplane when he travels,” Fitial said.
He said he has been communicating with Pickens’ Mesa Power Group, and has asked the company to send its people to the CNMI so they explore the islands’ geothermal energy sources.
“We, as the owner of this source of energy, need to make sure that we really have it here. We cannot just invite them to operate something that we don’t know yet if we really have. That is why we will invite Mesa Power Group here,” Fitial said.
The geothermal resource comes from the heat produced by a layer of magma below the earth’s crust. The amount of heat within 10,000 meters (about 33,000 feet) of the earth’s surface contains 50,000 times more energy than all the oil and natural gas resources in the world.
Fitial said his administration will also ask the U.S. Department of the Interior for funding to explore geothermal energy on Saipan. This federal assistance will take care of the cost of drilling, he added.
