Selected quotes from OPEC Oil Embargo +40, a National Summit on Energy Security held in Washington, D.C.

“Think about it. Go back 20 or 30 years ago. Diesel wasn’t very ubiquitous in this country. Forty percent of our gas stations today nationally have diesel in them. If 40 percent of them had a compressed natural gas station, think of the impact that would have in our foreign currency deficits, our trade deficits. The impact it would have on our environment. The innovation is there. I agree with Boone. All we have to do is have the will to force it through.”
Daniel Akerson
Chairman & CEO,
General Motors Company

“Clean burning, domestically produced, environmentally pure natural gas. That was our mantra when I was privileged to be in the natural gas business for a decade. That’s been Boone Pickens’ mantra probably for 30-plus years now. I think it’s fair to say T. Boone Pickens has been one of the greatest change agents in corporate America. I think he has clearly been at the forefront – the cutting edge – of redefining  and revolutionizing shareholder value and how that is viewed in the marketplace and investors.”
Thomas “Mack” McLarty III,
White House Chief of Staff,
Clinton Administration

“Boone’s business acumen is perhaps only matched by the force of his personal charisma. He has a way with words that is informative and entertaining in equal measure. As he said a fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan. When it comes to our energy future, the United States is sometimes a foolish nation without a plan. Boone Pickens is trying to change that. Today the self-described oil man might be better described as an energy rock star or certainly someone who waves the flag of natural gas. His Pickens Plan aims to make conversations about OPEC a thing of the past.”
Thomas “Mack” McLarty III,
White House Chief of Staff,
Clinton Administration

“I guess I’m the fool with the plan. Now I’m going to talk a little bit about the plan. At least I hope I have a plan. If I don’t have a plan, I’m just the fool. I’ll talk a little bit about the plan. I’ll let you all make the decision about whether I’m the fool with the plan or whether I actually have a plan. But it really does make sense to have Waste Management up here with Boone [Pickens] and Dan [Akerson]. Because basically what you’ve got is the producer of the fuel and the manufacturer that creates the product that is dependent upon the fuel; and then you’ve got Waste Management, a large user of the fuel. It makes sense for us to be up here as a large user of the fuel. What you may not know is we also go back and close the loop and make the fuel.”
David Steiner
President & CEO,
Waste Management