T. Boone Pickens predicts success for plan
BY JAY F. MARKS
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Published: October 30, 2009
STILLWATER — Billionaire T. Boone Pickens found a receptive audience Thursday at his alma mater as he discussed his plan to make the United States less reliant on foreign oil.
T. Boone Pickens speaks Thursday during his town hall meeting at Oklahoma State University in Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman
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"I’ve been an oilman all my life,” Pickens said in a video screened for a crowd of more than 4,000 people at
Oklahoma State University’s
Gallagher-Iba Arena. "This is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.”
Pickens spent about an hour detailing his plan to move the country closer to energy independence in what he described as one of the last stops in his $62 million personal odyssey.
The crowd at Thursday’s town hall meeting was the largest to hear Pickens’ plan, officials said.
The Pickens Plan, launched in July 2008, has drawn more than 20 million visitors to its Web site, making Pickens confident that a national energy plan is in the offing.
"We are very close to finally getting an energy plan for America,” he said. "For 40 years, we’ve never had a plan.”
Pickens said
President Richard Nixon in 1970 predicted an end to foreign imports by the end of that decade.
Instead the numbers have kept climbing, he said, from 24 percent of the country’s oil consumption in 1970 to about 67 percent now.
Pickens said that figure will hit 75 percent for oil that costs $300 a barrel in 10 years if there is no energy plan, leaving no money to hot-button issues like health care and education.
"This is not about politics. There’s not a Democrat or Republican angle to anything I’m talking to you about,” he said. "It’s about us.
"It’s our problem and we have got to solve it.”
Pickens advocates converting the nation’s 6.5 million heavy duty trucks to run on compressed natural gas, rather than diesel fuel.
"It’s 50 percent cleaner, it’s a dollar a gallon cheaper and it’s ours,” he said. "That is the key: It is ours.”
The switch to American-produced CNG would halve the amount of oil the United States buys from
OPEC within seven years, he said.
"That is the oil that is dangerous for America,” Pickens said. "That’s where we’re most vulnerable.”
Pickens also said wind power is an important resource, but natural gas is the one that will fuel the United States until batteries capable of powering an 18-wheeler are developed in about 25 years.
"We have more natural gas than any country in the world,” he said.
"This is a global game-changer and it’s in the hands of this administration.”
Pickens, a Republican, seemed confident
President Barack Obama’s oratorical skills will result in an energy plan similar to the one he’s been espousing.
He estimated there is a 50-50 chance the plan will be enacted this year. He guaranteed such a plan will be in place within a year.
"This is going to happen,” he said.
Pickens made a believer of
George Drake, a retired oil and gas executive who attended Thursday’s free town hall meeting on a whim after reading about it in the newspaper.
He said he was impressed with Pickens’ passion for helping his country.
"He’s willing to put his money where his mouth is,” Drake said. "I’m really impressed.”
Pickens said he has spent $62 million promoting his plan, which Drake insists makes perfect sense.
"I wish more people would have come,” he said. "A lot of people need to get on board with this.
"This is something they can get behind and do something about.”
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I am still paying into Social Security and medicare. I also pay a hefty amount of income tax every year that supports the welfarites.
I don't watch Fox News and I don't have Alzheimer's. So now what?
But don't worry Jacklyn, you aren't the dumbest person on here. Some beleive we can produce all our plastic needs with corn or hemp! Or better yet that this problem is the Democrat's fault. Even the ole Swiftboater himself, Pickens says in the interview that we have had no energy policy for many, many years. That includes a lot of years of Republican majority rule.
Wind Engery is also a joke.
Thank you for the informative message for the youth of our country today! I thank you for speaking directly to us, your generation, for telling us what needs to be supported aggressively that is before the powers in Washington today. We will band behind you, support your message and carry on to others.
Respectfully, Lillie