The T. Boone Express has been in the air a great deal this week. Starting on Monday, Boone braved a major late-season snowstorm as well as Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters to appear on “The View” television program.

As always, Boone’s presentation was so convincing that even Whoopi Goldberg got on board the theory of the Pickens Plan.

Boone laid out the problem - 40 years with no energy program, importing 70 percent of our oil and using 25 percent of the world’s oil supply with only four percent of the world’s population - but also, as always, laid out the solution: The Pickens Plan.

Part of the allure of “The View” is the often-contentious nature of the discussion either between the panelists and their guest, or among themselves. After parrying with Whoopi Goldberg on whether he is a Republican or a Democrat now, (Boone said, “Well, Whoopi, I’m an American first”) Joy Behar asked if she could call him “T.” He said, “Just don’t call me Boone” which brought down the house.

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While in the air on the T. Boone Express, Boone did an interview with Air America’s David Bender who began the segment by allowing Boone to talk about the Pickens Plan and the need to “replace the 70 percent of foreign oil we are importing with domestic sources.”

Boone broke it down into two parts for the Air America listeners:

“First we have to get onto renewables - that’s the wind and solar, and we have to build out a 21st Century grid to move that energy to the East and West costs.

“The second part of the plan is to get on a resource that will replace foreign oil - especially for heavy trucks. The only domestic resource available to do that is natural gas.

“We have big volumes of natural gas which can replace big volumes of foreign oil.”

Bender said that Fox News had said that if the Pickens Plan were adopted then the price of domestic natural gas would rise.

“Well, if they’re not for what I’m proposing here, what is there plan? They have no plan, so their plan is: foreign oil.”

Boone ended the segment by urging listeners to go to the Pickens Plan website to sign up to participate in the Virtual March on Washington April 1-3 by going to http://www.pickensplan.com/virtualmarch.

“This is important to everybody in America,” Boone said, “It doesn’t have anything to do with politics at all. It’s about us and we have to be energy secure.”

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After acting like the U.S. Post Office and braving wind and weather in New York, Boone flew back to Dallas for an evening Town Hall at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

The house, as usual with college students and Boone, was packed. Reporter John-Laurent Tronche, who covered the TCU event for the Fort Worth Business Press wrote:

The first step toward reducing the nation’s dependence on oil is converting 350,000 18-wheeler trucks to natural gas, which Pickens said could reduce imports by as much as 4 percent. The government should provide incentives for fleet owners to make the conversion from diesel to natural gas, such as an $80,000 credit, he said to a packed house in TCU’s Brown-Lupton University Union ballroom.

You can read Tronche’s article HERE.

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The final stop on the two-day whirlwind was in Chicago where Boone addressed the Green Truck Summit at the annual Work Truck Show. These are the folks who buy, sell, maintain and use the heavy trucks which Boone wants to move from imported diesel to domestic natural gas.

A very interesting report on Boone’s speech was posted by the Medill News Services’ Leslie Patton which also includes a short video you should take a look at. You can see Ms. Patton’s report HERE.

A reminder: If you haven’t RSVP’d for the Virtual March, you need to do it now by clicking HERE.

– The Pickens Team

Check the Daily Pickens blog regularly for updates about the Army’s activities around the country.  If you organize, participate or attend a Pickens Plan function, be sure to blog about it - and take video or photos - and you might be featured here on Daily Pickens.

Jeff Greene an Army member from Coral Gables, Florida attended a town hall meeting that T. Boone Pickens was speaking at today.  Jeff was able to meet T. Boone and had this to say about his experience.

“Hey everyone, the meeting with T. Boone today was great. We were really able to see how AutoNation works. They are a consumer driven business. They have down to the dollar how cars are priced relative to the price of gas. To be honest, it was one of the most impressive presentations I have seen in regards to somebody understanding their market.

Both T Boone and Mike Jackson blasted the last 30 years of political rhetoric and spelled out what it will take to get this country off of its dependence on foreign oil. Increasing the price of gas by taxation. The economy needs to recover before it is implemented but should the stimulus plan work and we begin a recovery I would not be surprised to see a gas tax drafted into legislation. I don’t know if it could ever get though Congress but it will be interesting to watch.

Other than that, it was a thrill to meet T Boone and find out that we were both cut from the Texas A&M basketball team. He went a few years before I did but neat none the less.

T Boone is one of the best storytellers I have ever heard and he knows how to make people listen to what he has to say. Everyone was very courteous and supportive and I encourage EVERYONE to get out and attend a Town Hall meeting, they are becoming the new rage, politicians are doing them, T Boone is doing them…lol…maybe one day we will too.”

Thanks to Jeff for sharing his experience with other members of the Army.   Boone loves it when members of the army can come and participate in events with him. Get involved with your District Group yet, click here to get started organizing Pickens Plan efforts in your community and next time Boone is town, maybe you’ll get to meet him too!

Nina

Team Pickens

Check the Daily Pickens blog regularly for updates about the Army’s activities around the country. If you organize, participate or attend a Pickens Plan function, be sure to blog about it – and take video or photos – and you might be featured here on Daily Pickens.

Jordan Birden, an incredibly bright and talented member of the Pickens Army, heads a Pickens U chapter at Texas A&M University.

Friday, he attended Boone’s Monthly Oil Numbers press conference in Houston and had this to say about his experience:

“This morning I had the privilege of attending Boone’s press conference in Houston. During the event, hosted by TranStar ( a consortium responsible for providing Transportation Management and Emergency Management services to the Houston area), Pickens released the U.S. Department of Energy Information Administration’s figures on imported Oil to the United States. For the month of January alone the U.S. imported 67.4 percent of its oil, which amounts to 408.7 million barrels.

Boone hit the nail on the head when he explained that over that 31 day period we gave $17 billion away to countries that “aren’t very nice to us.” Accompanied by State Representative Beverly Woolley, the two emphasized that the US could put that $17 billion a month towards better uses such as updating and repairing infrastructure which in turn could produce jobs, and create more efficient highways.

What I took most interest in was Boone’s proposal to convert 350,000 large trucks/semi’s to natural gas. In response to an NBC reporter’s question about what the average every-day American can do to help, Pickens said “join the Energy Army.

He wants us to know that every single person that joins the New Energy Army makes a difference. My favorite quote from Boone today was, “When meeting with members of Congress and the Senate I used to have to wait 30 minutes to see them, now they wait 30 minutes to see me. It’s power when you have a million plus people walking with you.”

I’m glad Jordan was able to attend. Boone loves it when members of the army can come and participate in events with him. Jordan is also an active member of the TX-17 District Group. If you haven’t joined your District Group yet, click here to get started organizing Pickens Plan efforts in your community.

Geoff Bailey
Regional Leader

Check the Daily Pickens blog regularly for updates about the Army’s activities around the country. If you organize, participate or attend a Pickens Plan function, be sure to blog about it – and take video or photos – and you might be featured here on Daily Pickens.

I wanted to share my experience today. I spent this morning with the fantastic 5th graders of Town Center Elementary in Coppell, TX.  I drove the natural gas powered Pickens Plan car. Each of them were amazed to see that a natural gas car is exactly the same as one that runs on regular gasoline, but its powered by cleaner, cheaper, abundant, domestic natural gas.

Later, I talked to them about the economic and environmental benefits of the Pickens Plan. They had great questions! Both students and teachers were hungry for leadership on alternative energy. Three students were chosen to present their research projects. They have been studying alternative energy and all worked really hard on their research. Afterwards, several students came up to me and said, “My Mom/Dad wanted me to tell you that they’re part of the army.” How cool is that?!

Today, I was able to really see the scope of our dependence on foreign oil. It is our responsibility to act, so that our children can reap the benefits of an economy free from the stranglehold of foreign oil.

Geoff Bailey
Regional Leader
TX, OK, AR, LA

In case any of you missed it, Boone was on the Daily Show last night.

Watch the video and see Jon Stewart announce that he and his audience would follow Boone out the building!!

Pass this along to five of your friends and get them to join Boone and the New Energy Army in the fight for American energy independence!

Let’s start off with a historical note. When it comes to wind and solar power, you have an unusual expertise. You won America’s Cup.
That’s right, I was the wind king. But I also like solar, because the sun is good, too. And I think solar and wind together make a dynamite combination.

What’s our next step?
The government needs to change its attitude.

That’s what Boone’s been saying. Are you ready to march on Washington with him and his New Energy Army in January?
Absolutely. I’d love to march in Washington. There’s a wonderful book that I just finished a couple of days ago that’s got a lot to say about Washington. It’s by Tom Friedman, a New York Times writer.

Hot, Flat, & Crowded?
That’s the one. He’s right on about the way Congress is still backing the fossil fuel industry. Actions speak louder than words, and wind and solar and geothermal are all at a serious disadvantage. We’re falling further and further behind. Other countries are miles ahead of us because they’ve had much more enlightened leadership as far as energy is concerned. We’re just stuck in a rut.

That hurts everybody – consumers, companies, and the country as a whole.
It makes me angry to read about it because if we give American ingenuity and entrepreneurship just half a chance, we can do a better job than anybody in the world. We’ve proven it time and again, but the Congress is so used to the big contributions from the fossil fuel industry that they haven’t moved at all. That’s got to change with the new administration and fast.

There was a passage in Hot, Flat, & Crowded where GE’s Jeff Immelt told Tom that GE had developed third-generation clean energy technology with wind turbines. But it wasn’t because of the U.S. market. It was because of the European Union.
Right. Countries like Spain and Germany are incentivizing clean, renewable energy and moving away from fossil fuels, but we’re not. It’s hard to believe that a country that likes to think of itself as enlightened and progressive and ahead of the curve would have allowed itself to fall so far behind and be doing virtually nothing about it even today.

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

T. Boone stopped by Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” yesterday to talk about the economy and the Pickens Plan. Click here to watch video.