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.

Watch below.

Do Americans realize the risks we take by not having an energy plan in place?

Simple answer? No. There’s been a total lack of leadership on both sides of the aisle.

Presidents since Richard Nixon have said that we need to end our dependence on foreign oil. Yet our imports have jumped from one-quarter of our oil consumption in the 1970s to almost two-thirds now.

Politicians have been talking about energy and energy policy as far back as Nixon. And if you fast forward 50 years, we still haven’t put in place a broad-based, comprehensive plan to take advantage of our natural resources, to take advantage of the innovation and technological advantages we can bring to this space, and to become far less dependent on foreign sources of oil.

You are a proponent of utilizing America’s abundant shale gas reserves to offset this imbalance.

Mother Nature gave us a whole bunch of natural gas. We could be the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. That’d be okay.

Much of the Marcellus Shale lies beneath Pennsylvania.

From Pennsylvania’s perspective, it’s a gift that could keep on giving for the foreseeable future if we create the right legislative and regulatory structure to encourage investment, to help create additional demand, and to simultaneously bring in the most extraordinary burst of economic energy that we have ever seen to Pennsylvania in general and to rural Pennsylvania specifically.

What are some next steps?

There’s a lot of excitement in Pennsylvania. All these things together bode well for Pennsylvania if we don’t frustrate the upfront investment. Pennsylvania has been blessed with natural resources. Obviously, coal comes to mind, and we’ve learned some tough lessons, including how we deal with the environment. The greatest sensitivity Pennsylvanians have is with regard to water because we still have streams in 40-plus counties dealing with acid mine drainage.

The fact of the matter is I think most Pennsylvanians, once they understand the drilling techniques involved, once they understand the layering in the well bore of steel-concrete-steel-concrete, once they understand that the distance between these wells and the water table at minimum is normally a mile, if not greater, once they understand that there have been over a million wells that have been fracked, and there’s no single incident where it’s been demonstrated that any impurity into the water is directly related to the drilling, there will be a comfort level that I think will – I hope – means that Pennsylvanians will not just accept the industry, but embrace it as a strong economic, environmental, and competitive catalyst and advantage that it will create in our state.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED, AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE

In a statement released by the White House today, President Barack Obama urged passage in the Senate of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a bill to reform our country’s energy economy:

“I applaud Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman for their tireless work in drafting this important legislation.  This legislation will put America on the path to a clean energy economy that will create American jobs building the solar panels, wind blades and the car batteries of the future.  It will  strengthen our national security by beginning to break our dependence on foreign oil. And it will protect our environment for our children and grandchildren.

“Americans know what’s at stake by continuing our dependence on fossil fuels. But the challenges we face - underscored by the immense tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico - are reason to redouble our efforts to reform our nation’s energy policies.  For too long, Washington has kicked this challenge to the next generation.  This time, the status quo is no longer acceptable to Americans.  Now is the time for America to take control of our energy future and jumpstart American innovation in clean energy technology that will allow us to create jobs, compete, and win in the global economy.

The House of Representatives has already taken historic action with passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. I look forward to engaging with Senators from both sides of the aisle and ultimately passing a bill this year.”

The complete release is available from the Office of the Press Secretary HERE.

Natural gas is, in many ways, the ideal fossil fuel. It is clean, easy to transport, and convenient to use.- U.S. Department of Energy

One way to prevent an oil supply disruption is to ensure our domestic production of oil is maintained.  Remaining U.S. oil fields are becoming increasingly costly to produce because much of the easy-to-find oil has already been recovered. – U.S. Department of Energy

The United States has three times the amount of natural gas it thought it had in 1966 — and 40 percent more than just a few years ago. In fact, more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is estimated to be available; at present consumption levels, that’s enough to heat all U.S. households for the next 519 years.

General Electric has won a $1.4 billion contract to build wind turbines for a wind energy generation operation in Oregon. The operation will consist of 338 turbines, for installation in 2011 and 2012, at Oregon’s Shepherds Flat generations station, making it the largest wind farm in the nation. The station will have an 845 megawatt capacity, and can supply 230,000 homes.

America is experiencing a natural gas revolution. Prices are 33 percent lower than they were last year, and the industry is producing significantly more gas, thanks to technology that has uncovered enormous new supplies of natural gas. - Senators Mary Landrieu and Saxby Chambliss

Natural gas has a high ignition temperature, about 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with about 600 degrees Fahrenheit for gasoline. It also has a narrow range of flammability, that is, in concentrations in air below about 5 percent and above about 15 percent, natural gas will not burn. The high ignition temperature and limited flammability range make accidental ignition or combustion of natural gas unlikely.

As winter begins, the price of natural gas is about a third of the level it was 14 months ago. Storage facilities are bursting.

A new study funded by the Department of Energy and released this week, found no appreciable impact on the home values of some 7,500 properties in close proximity to turbines. “There’s simply no evidence that those homes have been negatively impacted by the presence of a wind facility,” said Ryan Wiser, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-author of the study.

Compressed natural gas bus life-cycle costs are at least 45 percent lower than diesels or hybrids because they are more economical to purchase, fuel, and maintain.

During complete combustion of natural gas, only carbon dioxide, essential for plant life, and water are produced as byproducts.

The United States is the world’s second largest wind energy producer after Germany.

New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition’s New Jersey Compressed Natural Gas Refuse Trucks, Shuttle Buses and Infrastructure project will deploy 277 heavy-duty natural gas garbage trucks and shuttle buses and four new CNG fueling stations throughout Newark, Camden, Trenton, Atlantic City, and Egg Harbor Township.  The initiative also includes projects to educate the public about the benefits of using clean burning, domestically produced natural gas in vehicles.  DOE estimates that the project will help displace 1.8 million gallons of petroleum annually.