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Pickens Decries Lack of Energy Plan
Warns that U.S. will soon be importing 75 percent of its oil
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, October 15, 2008
During a visit to Chicago, IL to drum up support for his so-called "Pickens Plan," businessman T. Boone
Pickens said America's
energy crisis is just as urgent as its current financial emergency and outlined
a solution that makes liberal use of natural gas and wind energy.
"I got into
this crusade because I think I'm the only person in America who understands the energy
issue and I wanted to share that with you," Pickens told an audience of more
than 500 people at Chicago's
Navy Pier Grand Ballroom. "In this country, we are all to blame for the predicament
we're in today."
In making his case, Pickens argued American use of imported oil has been rising steadily for four decades largely because U.S. presidential administrations have failed to create a plan to turn it around.
"For 40 years, we've had no plan," he said. "We cannot go another 40 years without an energy plan. The country will not survive (that)." He added if the U.S. continues to do nothing to combat the problem, "we will be importing 75 percent of our oil and it will be $300 a barrel."
Pickens said his solution to the problem is to take the natural gas that now provides 22 percent of the country's electrical energy and redirect it to the auto industry. By doing so, the U.S. could power virtually all of its automobiles without the need to buy oil from "unfriendly countries" in the Middle East and Africa, he said. He added his plan would call for the creation of a massive wind corridor, stretching from Texas to Canada, as a means of replenishing the energy gap left by the auto industry's use of natural gas.
"Natural gas is cleaner, it's cheaper; it's abundant and it's ours," Pickens said of his proposal to power cars with natural gas.
Pickens acknowledged wind and solar are intermittent sources of power, but said coal and nuclear plants could be used to fill in when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.
Responding to a question about the potential need for electricity storage under his plan, Pickens said "I'm not an expert on storage of electricity. It's not easy. But those things are coming fast. I know that." He did not, however, describe what form of energy storage he would propose.
Pickens closed his speech by cautioning audience members not to search for oil-company conspiracies behind the rising price of gasoline. "Don't pay attention to any of the stuff you hear about how you're being gouged by the oil companies," he said. "We are all the cause of the oil prices."
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