This week marks the fifth anniversary of the announcement of the Pickens Plan. When we began, no one was talking about energy. Now, every Governor and Senator and nearly every Member of Congress is discussing energy.
I want to share with you a video celebrating all we have accomplished together as well as an op-ed I wrote that ran in today's Dallas Morning News.
For the first time in more than 40 years, America is not playing defense in the energy field. Our vast resources of natural gas from shale and our ability to recover oil more efficiently and safely have turned the United States from having to worry about where our next imported tankful of gasoline or diesel was coming from to serious discussions about the status of exporting natural gas.
But we are not finished. We are making great gains at the state level to remove outdated taxes and regulations that allow a growing number of shippers to move their over-the-road trucks from imported diesel to domestic natural gas.
I will not rest until the last barrel of Middle Eastern oil has passed through the Strait of Hormuz on its way to the United States. We can get on our own resources for transportation. We can let the Chinese pay to protect their Middle Eastern oil. We can continue to grow our economy - and the economies of our two largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. We can provide good, permanent jobs to more Americans. And we can clean up our environment by continuing to push our state and federal leaders to take the simple measures necessary to focus on domestic natural gas.
All of this would not have been possible - and I am not saying that lightly - without the support of members of the Pickens Plan Army. Let's keep the pressure on our elected officials to do the right thing and kick our addition to OPEC oil.
Here's to another five years!