T. Boone Pickens was on CNBC’s Squawkbox program this morning to discuss President Obama’s call yesterday to increase the use of natural gas as a principal transportation fuel in the United States.
Pickens, who announced the formation of The Pickens Plan on Squawkbox in the summer of 2008, said that the President now agreed with him that utilizing domestic resources was the only way to significantly reduce our dependence on OPEC oil and the only domestic resource to do that was to move heavy-duty trucks and fleet vehicles from imported diesel to domestic natural gas.
Boone Pickens is adamant that America get the energy plan it deserves. That’s the conclusion that Jay Marks of The Oklahoman reported to his readers after listening to the legendary energy executive yesterday.
It’s been more than three years since billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens unveiled his eponymous energy plan for America. The Holdenville native has spent $82 million to promote the Pickens Plan since July 2008, amassing 1.7 million followers online, but lawmakers haven’t moved ahead with any of his suggestions.
Pickens said he is not sure Congress is ready for a comprehensive energy plan, so he has focused on getting the nation’s trucking fleet running on compressed natural gas instead of diesel. The NAT GAS Act was introduced in 2009. It now has 185 co-sponsors.
“If we can get it to a vote, it’ll pass,” Pickens told The Oklahoman on Wednesday.
According to The Oklahoman, Pickens expects similar legislation to be introduced in the Senate soon. But no matter what he anticipates that compressed natural gas will displace diesel because it if far less costly.
“It’s going to happen, with or without legislation,” Pickens said.
Pickens said adopting CNG as a vehicle fuel is an essential part of helping the United States solve its energy problems. He said it is vital for the country to use its own domestic resources, rather than importing billions of dollars worth of oil from the Middle East.
“We have resources in America that would allow us to be energy secure,” Pickens said.
Energy expert and Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin told the Philadelphia Inquirer that America’s gigantic reserves of shale gas are not just some promising opportunity. The way he sees it, shale gas has already changed the country’s energy outlook:
“Shale gas has come on really fast. But people don’t realize it’s 30 percent of our gas production. It’s not a question of whether to do it or not. It’s happened,” Yergin said.
The author of The Prize, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1992, Yergin is the co-founder and chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy research consultancy.
Last Friday, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe announced a $2.2 million stimulus-funded program that will allow public and private fleets to apply for rebates to purchase or convert vehicles that rely on compressed natural gas.
“We’re not going to replace oil and we’re not going to replace coal, but to the extent that we can broaden our portfolio whether it’s biomass or compressed natural gas or wind power or solar power or electric generation, all of the things we can do as a state with regard to creating less dependence on foreign energy and more reliability on our American energy sources, the safer our people will be.” - Gov. Mike Beebe
Arkansas’s Compressed Natural Gas Conversion Rebate Program is open to state agencies, higher education institutions, cities, counties, school districts and private fleets with at least 10 vehicles. Rebates will be given to applicants following the conversion to or purchase of compressed natural gas powered vehicles. Recipients can receive up to $25,000 per vehicle with a limit of $440,000 per entity. The rebates are available until this December or until the fund is depleted.
Beebe also announced that $470,000 from state funds will go toward the development of two compressed natural gas refueling stations around Arkansas. The state energy office will partner with public and private entities on the installation of the two stations.
Financial services giant Goldman Sachs is projecting that the price of oil will rise substantially within the next year, thanks to increased demand worldwide.
Goldman Sachs commodities analysts increased their year-end forecasts for Europe’s benchmark Brent crude by around $20 a barrel for 2011 and 2012, to $120 a barrel this year and $140 a barrel in 2012. - MarketWatch
News of this report, and a similar one from Morgan Stanley, sent oil futures up almost 2 percent on Tuesday.
“While near-term downside risk remains as the oil market negotiates the slowdown in the pace of world economic growth, we believe that the market will continue to tighten to critical levels by 2012, pushing oil prices substantially higher to restrain demand.
Read and/or download the Goldman Sachs report HERE.
T. Boone Pickens took his signature Pickens Plan to Pennsylvania last week where he was joined by two members of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation - Rep. Jim Gerlach and Rep. Pat Meehan - at West Chester University.
According to West Chester facilities director Greg Cuprak, 25 percent of the university’s fleet now runs on natural gas. The natural-gas conversions cost $8,000 per truck. Thanks to low-cost natural gas, however, fuel costs are $2 per gallon less than when using imported diesel.
“They plow snow fine and that’s the toughest thing you can do with a pickup truck,” said Larry Krackov, foreman of the university’s garage. “They really got a work out this winter.”
U.S. natural gas reserves are equal to approximately 700 million barrels of oil. That’s almost three times the estimated crude oil reserves in Saudi Arabia. Yet the U.S. has no energy plan, which is why Pickens supports H.R. 1380, which is cosponsored by Representatives Gerlach and Meehan.
“When we talk about energy issues, I believe it is a question of national security,” Rep. Meehean told local media. “I am concerned about the continued reliance on we have on foreign oil.”
The Dallas Environmental Policy Examiner has named T. Boone Pickens the “Best Earth-Friendly Texan of 2008″ for his work on the Pickens Plan.
In an on-line piece by reporter Caroline Calais, the Examiner summarizes the reasons Boone went on his Pickens Plan crusade saying:
Mr. Pickens found the dependence on foreign oil to form the intersection of the three most critical issues America currently faces - the economy, the environment and national security.
For those of us who have been marching side-by-side with Boone as part of the New Energy Army, we know that has been central to our entire campaign.
The Examiner presented Boone with the title of “Best Earth-Friendly Texan of 2008 for “for his inspiring decision to take action” and has “re-energized Americans tired of oil dependence, high gas prices, and skeptical that neither the new Administration nor the new Congress are up to the challenge.”
The Texas Monthly Magazine is the premier magazine of its type in the Lone Star State. Editor-in-chief Evan Smith has written an op-ed piece about Boone Pickens suggesting that he be named the Dallas Morning News “Texan of the Year.”
Mr. Smith’s blog “T. Boone Pickens is my pick for Texan of the Year” is an honest and humorous look at Boone and Boone’s work for and in Texas.
“The energy magnate,” Smith writes, “could have chosen to sit on his behind, watch his beloved Oklahoma State Cowboys thrash around on the football field, and generally enjoy life. Instead,” Smith continues, “he decided to write yet another memoir – his third – and to promote, with great fanfare, his eponymous plan to reduce and hopefully eliminate America’s dependence on foreign oil through wind turbines, natural gas-powered cars and the like.”
You can read the entire op-ed piece in the Dallas Morning News by clicking HERE.
We’re unveiling an exciting new feature today. It’s called Boone Cam, and it will be the go-to place for regular video updates from T. Boone to the Pickens Plan Army.
With Congress currently at recess, we’ve organized an August Call-to-Action to build up our ranks and make the Pickens Plan a priority for our elected officials by the time they return to Washington. Here’s a message from T. Boone laying out the plan:
More info on the August Call-to-Action can be found here.
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