More Momentum for the Pickens Plan
Take it from this 80-year-old. After half a century in the energy business, I've learned a lot of lessons, and more than a few of them have been the hard way. One of the most important ones in all those years is that there is absolutely no reason for us to import two-thirds of the oil we use. Believe me: America has too much untapped energy for us to be spending $328,000 every single minute like we did last month when we imported 339 million of barrels of oil. That's $13 billion we sent overseas. Lucky for us February only has 28 days!
Ending our addiction to foreign oil was my goal when I launched the Pickens Plan on July 8. I spelled out a series of steps to decrease our reliance on imported oil and increase the use of domestic energy. Do you want to guess who got my plan right off the bat? The American people.
I know this because I met hundreds of folks one-on-one in town hall meetings from coast to coast. In big cities like Chicago and Salt Lake and in country crossroads such as Lamar, Colorado, Americans came out in force to offer their support for decreasing our dependence on foreign oil.
It didn't take long for members of both political parties to begin voicing their support for the Pickens Plan, too. Part of this had to do with the fact that ending our addiction to foreign oil is not good for just one party. It's good for all Americans. Another part had to do with the fact that I made it clear last year that I was going to stay on the sidelines during the presidential campaign. I met with both candidates. I presented my plan to each of them. And I made myself available as a resource to help in any way I could. Consequently, support for the Pickens Plan surged. To date, dozens of mayors, governors, senators, and congressmen have signed the Pickens Plan Pledge.
Now American businesses are starting to jump on board the Pickens Plan bandwagon. And that's going to be key. It started in December when Owens Corning signed on as the first corporate partner of the Pickens Plan. Think about it: better-insulated homes and offices will mean huge savings for American homeowners and businesses and decrease our reliance on imported oil. America's largest automotive retailer, AutoNation, is another big supporter of the Pickens Plan. Last month the company's CEO, Mike Jackson, hosted a Town Hall meeting in Fort Lauderdale. What do fuel-efficient cars require? Less energy. That's good news for car buyers and the environment. Watch out for Wal-Mart. The nation's largest retailer has teamed up with Peterbilt to test two CNG trucks and two LNG trucks to run between their distribution centers and their stores. And then there's American Electric Power, which is committed to developing the type of transmission grid so important to making the most of wind and solar power. Not only will the AEP's 21st-century transmission grid promote our energy security, but it will support the economic development our country needs right now. As I mentioned last week, AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson announced that his company was going to purchase 8,000 trucks that will run on natural gas. AT&T is also converting another 7,000 gasoline-powered vehicles to run on battery power and other fuel sources.
We're not out of the woods yet, but when the American people, their elected officials, and private enterprise set their sights on the same goal, you'd better watch out. Good things are going to happen. I guarantee it.
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My plan is to make me money and what better way to make me money than to profit from replacing the industry where I made several fortunes.
Billionaires preaching sustainability while amassing control of the lands that will be used in the scheme are at very least suspect. Possibly Mr. Pickens is really interested in promoting our energy independence, but I would not bet the ranch on it.
Mr. Pickens, I don't always agree with you, but what you are saying on this issue makes sense to me.
By the way, some companies have been using LNG/CNG trucks for years. What I have seen is that the engine carries both an LNG or CNG fuel tank, and also a diesel fuel tank. If anything goes wrong with the natural gas tank, the driver can throw a switch and run on diesel. It costs extra to set it up this way, but it does have advantages. As you say, natural gas burns cleaner, and is domestically produced. In the meantime, we can keep working on even better technologies.
It's only about 1000$ to retrofit.
Good plan sir.
Let's start with efficiency and rooftop solar.
Rooftop solar where air conditioning is the peak load is already cheaper, including loan fees, that paying the power company!
Why do you think so many companies are putting Solar on commercial rooftops?
See my profile for details.
'Green power' is a fantasy. In a time of BNENA (Build Nothing Ever Near Anything) the Dems are pushing an energy plan that distributes generation EVERYWHERE! A single wind turbine might make 2 MW (if the wind is blowing). A medium to large coal or nuke plant will make 2000 MW. So exactly who wants 1000 windmills in their back yard, or on sensitive lands? Not the Kennedys, and apparently not Diane Feinstein either. Just this week she moved to prevent BLM from putting solar panels in the Mojave Desert. Even Der Governator said "If you can't put them there, then where can you put them?".
This is what happens when politicans who can't even do arithematic try to dictate to technical industries. The Obama energy plan will be a very slow, expensive, and painful failure. FAILURE! And eat up still more time in which we should be planning and building nuclear power plants.
I agree that stopping investors from building solar in the deserts is a crazy, crazy thing. I think there should e a law forbidding people to join green movements if they still, have electricity feeds to their houses, drive cars (use any transportation for that matter), wash and dry their clothes in electric or gas devices. I want to see one environmentalist activist actually give up any benefits energy generation delivers to them. Solar and wind can, not immediately but in very short time (10 - 20 years, see http://Sol
T Boone, if anything should be commended for recognizing that there is profit to be made from embracing a more sustainable way of providing the energy we use on a daily basis. Whether this particular proposal is correct, time will tell, but it is an important field and subject to broach and re-introduce competition to - how we get our energy.
The more open the discussion, the better. The previous administration felt it important to make something which affects the lives of every single American something they had no say in.
The reason - the more talk the higher the chance that the better ideas will win favour with the US public.
So thankyou TBP, it is a conversation which needs to be started.
This is more about " sustainable profit " for the T.Boone Empire, subsidized by your tax $$. But, unfortunately for TBP, the banks beat him to the trough...
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Yep, all of the oil men are jumping on board now that they've helped to destroy the world's climate by getting rich plundering the earth. Just looking for another way to make some more dough and pass it on to a generation of rich brats who will never have to work a day of their lives or actually earn anything.
Mr. Pickens, I admire all of your proposals. It would have been nice if you supported such measures of energy independence 30 years ago. I have heard that you are no longer partisan which I hope that you adhere to from here on. The problem is that the folks that you were once ideologically aligned with are still out there in the Neocon Republican party that has no interest in the logic of energy independence.
Unless you convert your former breathren in the GOP your fight is an uphill one. Dick Cheney and his Neocon operatives have not gone away. Cheney still has a major vested interest in Big Oil and the Military Industrial Complex. These folks will be a major opposition for you and your associates.
I completely agree that quick and inexpensive (especially considering the long term cost) replacement of coal and oil is possible. The scales are not that unreachable. Only in 2007 5.3 GW of new wind power farms were installed.
Department of Energy: http://www
Look at this very simple comparison, analysis of the capacity and cost of wind power needed to replace oil, coal used for electricity.
http://sol
The graph also shows from-natural-gas and total electricity produced now in the US but that is not the critical part. The critical one is replacing coal and oil.
It is possible - the technology already works.
It is in reach - the capacity needed to deal with the most critical of current resources is not impossible to build.
It is not expensive - or even if some money are spent that will help with jump-starting the economy, creating new jobs.
It will redirects - money going overseas to money spend on US jobs and resources.
I completely agree that quick and inexpensive (especially considering the long term cost) replacement of coal and oil is possible. The scales are not that unreachable. Only in 2007 5.3 GW of new wind power farms were installed.
Department of Energy: http://www
Look at this very simple comparison, analysis of the capacity and cost of wind power needed to replace oil, coal used for electricity.
http://sol
The graph also shows from-natural-gas and total electricity produced now in the US but that is not the critical part. The critical one is replacing coal and oil.
It is possible the technology already works.
It is in reach - the capacity needed to deal with the most critical of current resources is not impossible to build.
It is not expensive - or even if some money are spent that will help with jump-starting the economy, creating new jobs.
It will redirect money going overseas to money spend on US jobs and resources.
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