Bipartisan Support for a National Energy Plan

Some people are of the opinion that I jump-started my plan to end our country's addiction to foreign oil on a whim. I may have launched the Pickens Plan in July 2008, but the truth is our lack of a national energy plan has been worrying me for most of my professional career. Beginning in the 1970s, I noticed America's oil import numbers were trending in the wrong direction. Forty years ago, when Richard Nixon was in office, we were importing 25 percent of our oil. Given the amount we were importing and the price of oil -- about $3 a barrel -- the economic impact was minimal. Today, two out of every three barrels of crude we use in the U.S. comes from overseas. And the cost? How about $24 billion, and that was just July's tab.

Want to know why I launched my plan? Because this country cannot afford to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign oil. We should be directing expenditures of that magnitude in ways that create jobs here at home, build more profitable companies, and generate more tax revenues.

I'm not the only one who thinks our current course is madness. A broad range of leaders from both sides of the aisle have recognized that we are heading in the wrong direction, and they did so long before I launched the Pickens Plan. A prime example would be former New York Governor George Pataki. During his three terms in Albany, Gov. Pataki showed leadership in many areas, including his support for converting heavy-duty municipal fleets from running on imported diesel to using domestic natural gas.

I bet you didn't know that a trash truck running on diesel fuel emits the same amount of pollutants as 325 automobiles. Not only do garbage trucks carry huge loads, but they run at all hours of the day. On top of that there are 200,000 trash trucks in the U.S. No wonder more and more elected officials are following Gov. Pataki's lead by supporting programs to convert state and city fleets to run on natural gas and propane.

It helps that New York State sits a top substantial portions of the Marcellus Shale, one of the largest potential sources of natural gas nationwide. In 1995, when Gov. Pataki was sworn in for his first term, the Marcellus was a geological footnote, a formation whose energy potential was limited at best. By the time he stepped down as governor of the Empire State, American ingenuity had figured out how to tap into the enormous reserves trapped in the Marcellus, the Barnett, the Haynesville, and more than a dozen other shales in the Lower 48. We now have more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil!

Once the August recess ends and Congress returns, we must pass the NAT GAS Act in the House (H.R. 1835) and the Senate (S. 1408). This is an unprecedented opportunity to put an energy plan in place for this country. After Labor Day, I'll be urging all 1.6 million members of the Pickens Plan Army to join me in making this happen. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer and let's get ready to take our message to Washington. We've got work to do!

Follow T. Boone Pickens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pickensplan

Comments

[Overtone]

For anyone who thinks natural gas is clean (it’s not) and safe (it’s not) and green (are you kidding?).

Leaks during drilling continue to happen and terrify the people who live near where they happen.

Corporations in Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and upstate New York have launched a massive program to extract natural gas through a process that could, if it goes wrong, degrade the Delaware River watershed and the fresh water supplies that feed the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Camden and Trenton, and many others.

“The potential environmental consequences are extreme,” says the editor of The River Reporter in Narrowsburg, N.Y. His paper has been following the drilling in the Upper Delaware River Valley. He said, “It could ruin the drinking supply for 8 million people in New York City.”

A revolutionary path to energy independence and a rapid reduction in fossil fuels is described in the article: 4 Steps to Revive the Auto Industry and the Economy. It will be found on the Aesop Institute website www.aesopinstitute.org.

It reflects little known breakthrough technology that opens paths to cars that need no fossil fuel , natural gas or recharge. Later, advanced versions can turn cars into power plants, wirelessly able to sell power to the local utility when parked.

Imagine the impact of cars and trucks that can pay for themselves, and end the need to built coal or nuclear power plants, or to ignore the serious problems of natural gas supply!

[leduck]

Pickens is not just worried about increasing imports of foreign oil
pickens is worried about PEAK OIL
he just wont say it
no mention was made of (r) rep. roscoe bartlett and his numerous, late night peak oil speeches in the house.

this is not about the money we spend on foreign oil
this is about depletion

[REMCAR18]

I AM FOR AN ENERGY PLAN THAT IS ABOUT AMERICAN RESOURCES. IF IT HAS TO DO WITH ANY OUTSIDE SOURCE, FORGET IT

[ScottontheSpot]

I'm a member of the Pickens Plan, but I just can't sit by while my drinking water in NYC risks contamination, from Fracking. That's why I just submitted a link to the following story on Op Ed News, where I am an editor and writer:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/frac-act-congress-introduces-bills-to-control-drilling-609
So far, my queries on the Pickens Plan site have gone unanswered, and the NG industry cannot be allowed to sweep this problem under the ground, so to speak. Cattle have died, houses have blown up, people have been sickened, and wells polluted. Read the series of expose's in Propublica an ddecide for yourself. Independence yes, but not at the cost of our health and water. There's a reason Dick Cheney bypassed the Clean Water Act in 2005 to encourage Fracking and it wasn't for "efficiency."

[TxAggie]

Frac-ing has been in common use for over 40 years. Yes bad stuff happens, houses do blow up, that is why natural gas is odorized as a warning. All cattle die- most as a food source but yes, accidents do happen. Contaminated wells are rare- VERY RARE and you need not worry about your water supply in New York City. The bills attempting to regulate fracing are nothing more than political grandstanding. Here we have a natural resouse that can greatly benenfit our economy, lessen our dependenceon foreign oil and and the politician's are grandstanding and you are all worked up over nothing. Relax- it will be OK.

[ScottontheSpot]

This is not the proper forum for back-and-forth discussion, but I suggest you read the Propublica reports before you make up your mind. It is not grandstanding. The damage is real and unacknowledged and the industry is trying to avoid responsibility. There's too much to sum up here. Search for Natural Gas on Propublica, to start.