Last summer, when I launched my plan to get America to end its addiction to foreign oil, I began travelling cross country, sharing my thoughts and ideas about what a senseless waste it was for Americans to be spending billions of dollars each month buying oil from countries like Iran and Venezuela.
Padding the bank accounts of state-owned oil companies whose leaders badmouth the United States may not bother you, but it doesn't sit well with me. That's not the way we were brought up in Holdenville, Oklahoma. And while I'm at it, I'm going to share another lesson I learned in small town America, one that Nellie Molonson taught me during the Great Depression:
"Everybody has to learn to sit on their own bottom."
What my grandmother was trying to tell me is that self-reliance is a sign of maturity. It's a lesson she hammered into my head, and I think about it as I ponder the hole we've dug for ourselves.
America allowed itself to be lulled into a false sense of security by cheap oil, and now we're paying the price. If you don't believe me, then go to the Pickens Plan website and see for yourself. We make a point of singling out the hard truth. Take this fact:
With the money projected to be spent on foreign oil in 2009, we could build 32,407 new elementary schools.
Do you like the sounds of that? I don't. All those billions should stay right here. The time has come for America to become more self-reliant. Listen to this:
What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility: a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.
Sound familiar? That's President Obama, in his Inaugural Address, reminding each and every one of us that the challenges that lie before us - invigorating our economy, creating millions of new jobs, and investing in America - are not easy ones. But the rewards will be many.
I've spoken to senators, congressmen, college kids, governors, mayors, and thousands of folks just like the ones I grew up with in Holdenville, and I'm absolutely 100 percent confident that we can end our addiction foreign oil. The way to do it is by relying on American ingenuity.
Take the example of Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, who was interviewed for my Pickens Plan website earlier this week. How has his state responded to skyrocketing energy costs?
By looking closely at every possible domestic energy. Gov. Strickland is the kind of leader who sizes up our present predicament and smells opportunity. Ohio generates 95 percent of its electricity from coal, so what does he do? He gets behind clean coal technology. He gets in the hunt to have a nuclear power plant built in his state. He flies to Spain to meet with a company that wants to develop a wind farm on Lake Erie. And he signs into law a bill that requires a substantial increase in the number of megawatts that power plants have to produce using alternative energies. Why?
Because he knows he's creating opportunities for hundreds of new companies. Thousands of new jobs. Billions in much needed investment. Just listen to him describe what's taken place in Toledo. Over the last decade, the city has become an international center for solar power research.
Why can't we do that across this great land of ours?
You want my opinion on a stimulus plan? Follow Ohio's example and invest in American energy. All of it.
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STD Money, Recovery.gov, The Patriot Act: HuffPost Readers Dig Through The Stimulus
More money to battle STDs. Recovery.gov stripped out. A nod to the Patriot Act. Huffington Post readers have taken a preliminary look at the Senate...
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Top Dem Senator: "Hundreds Of Billions More" Needed For Bank Bailouts
Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Budget Committee, warned Monday that the financial sector would need "hundreds of billions more" in federal dollars before the...
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Senate Looks To Boost Mass Transit, Highway In Stimulus
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to give a tax break to new car buyers, setting aside bipartisan concerns over the size of an economic...
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Where Is The Stimulus Shock And Awe?
During a November 25 press conference, then President-elect Obama promised "a new spirit of ingenuity," declaring that the "old ways of Washington simply can't meet...
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The Truth About the Stimulus Package
Until other countries are willing to do their share to stimulate the global economy, the Obama administration is right to lift our boat first.
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Stimulus, Yes; Bank Bailout II, No
If Obama does his job he will mobilize public opinion and isolate Republicans who would rather sink the economy than give a Democratic president legislative success. The current recovery bill is a good first step. If we get the scale of stimulus spending right, it will put people back to work and prevent the economy from collapsing for lack of purchasing power. But if the banking system stays in a state of cardiac arrest, it will continue dragging down the rest of the economy.
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Operation Zero Cred
The GOP with Joe the Plumber on the Hill this week to discuss the economy. They should be summarily shut out of this process -- whether or not the president wants them out.
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Economic Stimulus: Investing in Vets Delivers a Huge Bang for the Buck
As the Senate begins to debate the stimulus package this week, our elected leaders must ensure that any plan fully supports the newest generation of veterans and their families.
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Billionaire For A Day: A More Entertaining Economic Stimulus Package
Let's do something to capture all Americans attention and by doing so make the economic stimulus package real to all of us: 800 Americans will each win a billion dollars.
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Stimulus Package: If You Jump Halfway Across a Chasm You Fall Into the Abyss
If we are going to spend two trillion dollars (and most likely more) trying to deal with the economic crisis, shouldn't we do it right?
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Palin's Facebook Page: Opposes Obama's Stimulus Plan
We learn on Facebook that Palin has "serious concerns" with Obama's stimulus package. Say what?
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Change vs. Bipartisanship: What Happens When You Throw a Bipartisan Party and Half the Guest List Stays Home?
The problem with a message of bipartisanship is that it makes it very difficult to tell the story of why things are so bad that we need dramatic change.
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Obama Financial Team to Taxpayers: You'll Get Nothing, and Like It
There's nothing that prevents the public from getting their fair share of any future bank profits appropriate to the high risk investment they are being forced to make.
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No, Seriously: Republicans Don't Get It
Investment in bike paths will not only improve our economy, and take our country in the right direction for the future; it is exactly the kind of investment the American people want.
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Obama's Wake-Up Call
Even as unemployment hits 7.6 percent and shows no signs of slowing any time soon, the GOP is falling over itself to protect the ostentatious privileges and prerogatives of a few financial potentates.
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Stimulate Me!
Experts seem relatively unified, if such a thing is possible, on the issue of direct economic stimulus to every taxpayer. They're against it.
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Selling Stimulus
What the administration needs, and what its senior advisers proved so adept at during the campaign, is a simpler, more compelling, campaign-style message for what this legislation is really about.
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Where's Ross Perot When You Need Him?
I'm ready for a little old fashioned Ross Perot specification of the expected outcomes of the stimulus package. This is what we call in education a "teachable moment."
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A New Movement
There is a movement to strip billions of dollars from the stimulus bill led by Ben Nelson of Omaha (whose Democratic status is debatable) and Susan Collins (Republican) of Maine.
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Rahm Throws Pelosi Under The Bus To Save Stimulus Bill
The story of the morning seems to be that the Obama team is unhappy with Nancy Pelosi and the House committee chairs for delivering up such a liberal, pork-laden bill that they themselves really had nothing to do with.
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Bipartisanship (is) for Dummies
The idea that we can turn this economy around by caving to the feckless demands of those who screwed it up in the first place is utterly bankrupt.
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Obama: Use This And the Jobs Bill Will Pass With a 100 Vote Margin
Our best salesman is Obama. There is no house or senate member who this president cannot roll over.
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Obama to Speak Monday Night on Stimulus While Rep. Pete Sessions Says Republicans Are the New Taliban
If the media hadn't acted so irresponsibly the past two weeks and President Obama hadn't tried to be so bipartisan, he might not have had to take to the airwaves, but that's not the case anymore.
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Pulling the Wool Over Our Eyes
The American people elected President Obama in record numbers to lead our country in a new direction, if the Republicans aren't willing to join him, the least they can do is get out of his way.
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Our Twin Crises
That we are unable to manage a functioning economy or deal with climate change because rapacious Wall Street traders have disproportionate political clout is a measure of our political dysfunction.
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Creating Jobs Is Not "Wasteful"
America voted for a change of direction last November, not more of the same. Republicans should listen to the American people and work in a bi-partisan fashion to help get our country on the road to recovery.
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Steele Crazy After All This Year
We are witnessing, not so much the collapse of the Republican Party, as its slide into insanity. What was the GOP's great accomplishment last week? A show of "unity" enough to block the first stimulus package.
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Why the Stimulus is Needed, Part II
Given the decreases in personal consumption expenditures and gross private domestic investment, what are the chances of the consumer spending again or business investing again?
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Lions Coach Up Steelers on Stimulus Package
How can anyone take the GOP seriously on economic policy? Agree or disagree on their philosophy; their record is demonstrably terrible. They are the Detroit Lions of Congress.
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A Better Stimulus for the Economy
The problem with our economy is not weak spending, which is just a symptom of our predicament. The root problem is lack of confidence in the future.
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Democrats in Congress Need to Learn How to Lead
I am losing patience with congressional Democrats' innate instinct to capitulate, something that has been evident since the November 2006 mid-term elections.
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members. Their voice is to the call to Repower America with 100% clean electricity
within 10 years! They are working to solve the climate crisis. It's site is at:
http://www.repoweramerica.org to learn more.
Sounds like the story about the hole in the roof
and no one wants to fix it until it's raining. Once the rain stops there is no reason to fix it.
Together, we can make a change in how America uses it's renewable energy and
you can begin to understand that we have ther resources for energy independence
with or without the oil companies, the automobile industry or the utilities. Their only
interest is in keeping the monopoly going and money in their pockets. They are
threatened by this independent enrgy movement and either they help us get there
or they need to get out of American citizens way.
Thank you,
Mark Hedtke
event nationally? I have been attempting to get a renewed interest in alternative
energy back in front of the news. My own idea was to have the major Green Groups
throughout America to help sponsor an event with the support of groups like the Pickens
Plan participating. The Boone Pickens group is set up by Congressional Districts
throughout the country, it has over 1.4 million members. It's site is at: http://push.pickensplan.com/profile/MarkHedtke so you can see what people are doing.
I have been trying to get local interest in an combined District's event for central Florida
and the public seems to once again be fickle and it seems like everyone is once again
in a hypnotic delusional state that the fuel prices are once again more reasonable so
there is no reason to be up to arms. Just like the American consumer's limited vision.
Perhaps the steam and interest has waned a bit as fuel costs have declined, yet they
are on the way back up again, all the more reason for people to understand the cyclical
method in continuing to raise fuel prices and one of the reasons to keep pushing for
energy independence and stay active.
Look for my additional comments in part 4 below.
Thank you,
Mark Hedtke
to do the research, invest in and acquire the technologies of alternative energy.
Many of them have had solutions to the present economic "oil crisis" sitting on back
shelves since the 70's. Once again, if you have followed the big press releases of
companies over the years and seen the new discoveries and methods of these
technologies on display, you also will far more often, as an inquiring stock holder
get a letter from your enquiry that the new fangled discovery just isn't economically
feasible at this time. I am personally aware of at least a half dozen such devices
that were shelved by both oil companies and the auti industry, in my opinion only
because they still haven't figured out how to continue to profit from it themselves.
Lokk for part 3 below
Thank you
Mark Hedtke
has consistently shown that the American consumer doesn't have the staying power
to put it's pocketbook where it's mouth is, as far as the price of fuel at the pump.
Looking at fue price history, the 60's had gas prices in the range of as low as 17cents
to as high as 26cents a gallon. This past year many places had over $4.00 a gallon.
To consider that with the abundance of oil that has been available during this period,
one would think that "they" have been gouging us for years is not a unreasonable
assumption. Yet is there some kind of colusion or conspiracy involved here?
Probably nothing that we will ever be able to conclusively prove, yet the energy
companies, as they would like us to think of them now (considering the negative
association oil has in the public's perception right now) have had the ability for years
to make the changes that the public once again is seeking someone to take a
leadership role in. This is part of the appeal of the Pickens Plan.
Look for Parts 2 and 3 of my comments below
Thank you
Mark Hedtke
90 percent of Israeli homes have a solar water heater.
Why can't "sunny' states in USA have this type of heating on he roofs?
http://www.elrst.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/solar_israel.jpg
oil executives are infinitely biased against green energy.
and having lived in Eastern Montana, have seen how revolutionary wind power can (and helpful to the rural communities economies)
the era of saying one thing and doing the opposite, particularly when it comes to energy and environmental policy no longer suffices.......
thank you for your sensible, realistic work on the issue...........
Nonsense.
Perhaps he would consider giving one of his underlings leave of absence to serve in Government.
We need his brand of expertise.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/geothermal.html
Turbo-generators producing electricity from an inexhaustible non-polluting source rather than expensive fresh or fossilized biomass needs immediate large scale development. Hydrogen from electrolysis can provide portable energy for pollution free vehicles. Hot dry rock geothermal energy (Enhanced Geothermal System – EGS) can supply all our energy needs, EGS areas are mapped at:
http://pesn.com/2007/01/22/9500449_MIT_Geothermal_Report/
Oil companies can drill to the hot dry rock. Technology for utilization of superheated steam from geothermal wells is known. Nuclear fission at the earth’s center is as unending a provider of heat energy as is the sun.
Fossil fuels and uranium ores will eventually be exhausted. They should be used to support the transition to EGS. The sooner we develop reliable and safe alternate sources the less painful will be the transition.
Initial progress in EGS is slow but gathering momentum. There are several geothermal projects in Nevada. Several countries are already investing seriously in geothermal. While the US was a pioneer in dry rock geothermal energy development at Los Alamos during the Carter administration funding was stopped by the last administration. Time has been lost in the development of the technologies to profitably exploit the ultimate solution to an inexhaustible energy source.
Nukes = mushrooms clouds.
1. Massive rooftop solar installations, starting with larger commercial roofs, ala Nanosolar.
in the sunniest areas first, which will free up natural gas used for air conditioning peak load.
2. Offshore and rural wind turbines
3. roof top micro wind.
4. plug in hybrid cars
5. natural gas 1000$ truck conversions.
6. Phase out coal plants first: this alone stops global warming.
7. phase out nukes. More nuclear power = more mushrooms clouds via proliferation: India, Korean...
8. backup the solar and wind with the same natural gas generators we used to use for air conditioning peak load. NG generators are the cheapest to install, and respond quickly to load changes.
9. burn up all the large deposits of natural gas to prevent another methane extinction.
10. phase out natural gas, replacing it with green generated hydrogen.
11. use oil for aircraft fuels, phase into fisher tropes diesel. Possibly hydrogen.
12. make efficiency upgrades constantly.
13. Install distributed natural gas/hydrogen co-generators for 95% efficiency Heat plus Electricity
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/research
It will come when we use less.
The way forward is mass transit. Get people out of their cars and into street cars, trains and light rail.
This may happen anyway - Americans can no longer afford to own the kind of car it takes to keep the Big 3 profitable. And Obama is looking to stimulate the economy with infrastructure. 80% of Americans live in or near a city. So the timing and conditions are right.
That is change I can believe in.
I commend the general sentiment of this post -- "buy American, energy-wise, too" -- bu no way will we be energy independent soon, since we depend on oil-using cars, and half our oil is imported.
You mix up apples and oranges when you talk about oil -- used for transportation -- and nuclear energy and coal, used for electricity.
To say we are should turn to nuclear to cut oil imports is saying, "I have a hole in my shoe, so I will buy a hat!"
You also mix coal, nuclear and solar together as "clean energies":
Hmm, Mr. Pickens....I think you know enough to know better. Are you trying to confuse the American public again? We're oh so sick of it.
I agree with posts below that energy conservation is an energy resource, and that there are viable, non-polluting forms of energy to power our electrical plants. As for cars, a totally different matter, there are already hybrid and other cleaner fuels for our wheels, Detroit and the oil companies have blocked these from easily entering our "free market."
-- Melissa Rossi, author, What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running the World and What Every American Should Know about Who's Really Running America.
See I always thought that you could make the argument that to go nuclear you free up natural gas that could then be used in place of gasoline. I realize that this would take awhile but it sounds good to me.
Wireless electricity, freely generated and flowing, is already here: Marin Soljcic of MIT is already in a company bringing true wireless to market. it will resolve most energy demand in our lives. Fulton Innovation in Michigan is working on it.
No more dirty coal and gas, thanks. Wake up, Pickens, and read the news on msn.com, tech section.
I'd love see, as part of the stimulus package, a program for the government to fund improvements to private homes - insulation, double glazing etc - to make them more energy efficient. This would create immediate jobs in the housing industry. It's also something that jobless auto workers could be easily and quickly retrained to do. And it would reduce the energy consumption and bills of every single American family.