“They have a good plan. This will work,” T. Boone Pickens said of the energy plan announced by Mitt Romney this week. “It needs more, but it is a real good shot at a plan.”
The 21-page plan “calls for more state control of federal lands, less restrictive federal regulations and the completion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline as part of an effort to become energy independent by 2020,” according on the Daily Oklahoman newspaper.
Earlier in the day, Pickens had been asked to rate the Romney plan while on national morning television news shows, but had only seen a summary as provided by the New York Times which had not included anything about natural gas. Having seen only that, Boone said he was disappointed that it only called for more oil production.
When he read the entire plan, Boone viewed it much more favorably.
The Oklahoman wrote,
Pickens for years has called for the country’s trucking fleet to convert to natural gas instead of oil, saying the effort alone would eliminate the need for three-quarters of the oil the United States imports from OPEC.
The Romney plan does not call for tax credits or other financial support for the effort, but it does cite it specifically as an example of how the private sector is “making massive investments in natural gas infrastructure.”
Boone explained, “Romney is saying heavy duty trucks need to get on natural gas. That is an easy sell because of the fuel savings” which is about $2 per gallon equivalent.
— The Pickens Team