The Energy Information Agency has reported that in March the United States imported 332 million barrels of oil at a cost of $41.6 billion or nearly a million dollars per minute.

Since President Obama called for an “all of the above” energy policy in his State of the Union address in January, we have imported 827 million barrels of oil at a cost of about $102 billion.

The U.S. Congress has not taken seriously our continued dependence on OPEC for our oil even though we have domestic natural gas reserves that will last more than 100 years.

The Senate recently voted on the major elements of the NAT GAS Act and it got 51 votes for and 47 against. However, due to Senate rules it needed 60 votes to pass. The House has yet to bring the measure to the floor.

– The Pickens Team

Pickens Plan founder T. Boone Pickens will be a featured panelist at The New York Times Energy For Tomorrow Conference, which will stream live online at 1100 EST at www.nytenergyfortomorrow.com.

Boone will join former Energy Czar Carol Browner, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, and others on a distinguished panel moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman of The Times.

Topics to be discussed include:

Rising domestic oil production. Now that the U.S. i self-sufficient in natural gas, could the United States become energy independent for the first time in more than six decades?

What about Canada’s role in U.S. energy security?

And what do these sources mean for the energy exporters and their revenues?

With the “globalization of demand” — and the growth of oil and gas consumption in China and India — what are the implications for exporters’ revenues and what will be the impact on stability in the Middle East?

What shift would a readjustment of energy consumption cause in traditional economic and political alliances?

Watch it live at www.nytenergyfortomorrow.com.

April 5, 2012 American Public Gas Association (APGA) sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Energy Committee, House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Natural Resources Committee urging them to support the New Alternative to Give Americans Solutions Act (NAT GAS Act) in response to the recent and dramatic increase in gasoline prices.

Bert Kalisch, President and CEO of APGA said, “The recent increase in the price of gasoline to a national average of $3.91 has sent shockwaves throughout the economy. Once again, consumers have been hit with a veritable tax increase in the form of inflated energy prices which is reducing their purchasing power and spending, causing financial markets to tumble, and inhibiting economic growth in the midst of a nascent recovery.”

Kalisch went on to note that by passing the NAT GAS Act and adopting natural gas vehicles (NGVs) consumers, “could save $1-$2 per gallon (and possibly more) by filling up with natural gas produced right here in the U.S. In so doing, U.S. consumers and businesses would save billions of dollars which could be spent on other necessities or new job-creating investments.”

Kalisch concluded stating that the NAT GAS Act will improve our national security by promoting vehicles which obviate the need for imported oil and would, “finally send the policy signal that the U.S. will no longer be captive to geopolitical events around the globe, but will begin the journey towards energy independence.”

– The Pickens Team

In an interview on The Kudlow Report on Tuesday, T. Boone Pickens told Larry Kudlow that oil prices could hit all-time highs this summer. Sanctions against Iran are part of the reason. But the limited ability of major exporters such as Saudi Arabia to cover any shortfalls is another driver. And Pickens thinks the Saudis can’t cover the gap.

“It’s tight now. That’s why you have Brent North Sea $126 and you’ve got WTI at $105. Global supply is tight. No, I don’t think they can can cover. If they do, they’ll cover it out of storage,” said Pickens.

How much of a price increase are U.S. consumers looking at?

“I don’t know how much is up. I think you can very well see the old high — $148,” he said. “I’m not saying WTI — our price here in the United States — will go up to $148. It’s been very stable around $100,” said Pickens.

Read more HERE.

Where I’m from in Eastern Oklahoma, 51 beats 47, but not in the U.S. Senate. So the NAT GAS amendment on the transportation bill didn’t pass, but we’re going to keep pushing, we will get another crack at it, and we’ll go harder next time.

At a symposium sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, T. Boone Pickens and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell discussed natural gas as a “game changer.” Pennsylvania is essentially ground zero for the Marcellus Shale which contains one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves.

To read the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the discussion, click HERE

– The Pickens Team

Earlier this week, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) voiced his disappointment in his colleagues in the Senate, who defeated the NAT GAS Act as an amendment to the Transportation Bill 51-47. As the final tally indicates, a majority of Senators supported the bill, however, Senate rules required a supermajority of 60 votes.

“Only in the U.S. Senate can a common sense bill like the NAT GAS Act get a majority of the votes and still fail,” Congressman Larson said.

Throughout his seven terms in Congress representing Connecticut’s First District, Rep. Larson has been a staunch advocate of ending America’s dangerous addiction to foreign oil.

The NAT GAS Act was crafted with that goal in mind. It will provide a tax credit for the purchase of a natural gas truck; create a new tax credit for equipment manufacturers that produce natural gas vehicles (NGVs) to encourage production and sale in the U.S.; and, provide grants for the development of light- and heavy-duty NGVs and engines to ensure the U.S. stays at the forefront of clean energy development.

“Natural gas is affordable, abundant and American. It costs one-third less to fill up with natural gas than gasoline and we have enough natural gas here at home to meet our energy needs for the next 100 years, which means we can start weaning ourselves off foreign oil today,” Congressman Larson said.

The Congressman is also mindful of the powerful effects that developing this technology will have on the U.S. economy.

“And on the jobs front, if we start making cars and trucks that run on natural gas, which the NAT GAS Act would help encourage, there’s the potential to create over a half a million American jobs. That’s why President Obama included NAT GAS as an important piece in his All-the-Above energy strategy,” Congressman Larson said.

On the House side, the NAT GAS Act enjoys over 180 bipartisan sponsors. Congressman Larson vows to continue to fight for the NAT GAS Act in the House of Representatives.

Read more HERE.

“I am gratified by the strong bipartisan majority vote for Nat Gas Act today. This legislation is a
national priority. The question isn’t if it gets passed, it’s when. America has waited long enough
for Washington to deliver on its promise to address the OPEC oil dependency problem.”

If there was ever a time for us to take action in support of the NAT GAS Act, it is NOW.

Can I count on you to call your two U.S. Senators TODAY and urge them to support the natural gas amendment when it is offered, likely tomorrow? And report back by replying to this email to let me know what they say.

The U.S. Senate is currently debating reauthorization of the nation’s highway program. The NAT GAS Act is being offered as an amendment (#1782) by a bipartisan group of Senators: Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

If you need to look up who your U.S. Senators are, you can find that list here. You can contact them by calling the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking to be connected to their offices directly.

Please make your phone calls today and let’s push our Senators in Washington to finally support a plan to move us toward reducing the stranglehold OPEC has on our economic and national security. This amendment will enable us to start to gaining control over our cost of transportation fuels.

A few key talking points:

• The legislation is fully paid for by a temporary user fee on natural gas used as a vehicle fuel.
• By extending tax credits for natural gas vehicles and refueling infrastructure for just five years, this legislation can jump start an industry and make a cleaner, domestic, less expensive transportation fuel more widely available.
• North America’s natural gas discoveries have more than doubled over the past four years, meaning that, at current consumption rates, this resource could supply current consumption for over 100 years.
• Importantly, natural gas vehicles are the only off-the-shelf technology available today to replace diesel in medium- and heavy-duty applications.
• Natural gas vehicles improve local air quality. According to the EPA, natural gas as a vehicle fuel has very low emissions of ozone-forming hydrocarbons, toxics, carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases.

Call your U.S. Senators today. Thank you.

The Orlando Sentinel will interview T. Boone Pickens in a live video event on Wednesday, March 7 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm ET.

Click here to watch this event live.

The following op-ed by T. Boone Pickens ran in the Orlando Sentinel on March 7, 2012.

Gasoline prices are spiking. Again. And again the public is concerned. We’ve been through this song and dance before. The rhetoric is the same. Blame it on the Middle East. Blame it on speculators. Blame it on the oil and gas industry.

Here’s where I assign the fault. Washington’s continued inability to develop a comprehensive national energy plan. China has one. Virtually every other country does, too. Washington should follow suit, and deliver on the four-decade-long promises of energy independence and enhanced energy security.

Now is the time.

Like the 1993 movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, we wake up every couple of years and go through exactly the same sequence of events with exactly the same results.

Crude oil is selling for more than $100 per barrel. Just last week the mere rumor of a pipeline explosion in Saudi Arabia pushed the price above $110 in intraday trading. It’s no wonder premium and midgrade gasoline is now more than $4 per gallon in most of the United States, and regular grade is hot on their heels.

Put simply, we have little say in the price of oil. It’s a global commodity. The Saudis have told the world they need $90-plus-per-barrel oil to meet social commitments. They are likely to get it.

There are those who tout progress in the domestic-energy arena, and there is some good news. Domestic production is up, due, in large part, to technological advances in drilling and production related to hydrofracking.

But there’s also a stunning lack of progress in a key area, and that’s the national security risks associated with our continued dependence on OPEC oil, and the greatest transfer of wealth in human history to nations that, in many instances, are hostile to America. Each day, we buy five million barrels a day from the cartel.

Today, we find ourselves the world’s oil police. There are 11 U.S. carriers. Outside of U.S. coastal waters, there are more deployed in the Middle East — to protect oil supplies — than anywhere else.

If you factor in those costs, the U.S. has spent $7 trillion on OPEC oil since 1976. It’s fiscal and economic insanity.

Any national energy plan must focus on transportation. It accounts for two-thirds of total oil use in the U.S.

I have been — and remain — a staunch advocate of renewable energy, including wind and solar, as part of the long-term energy mix. But those are power-generation fuels. Transportation — and replacing dirtier, expensive OPEC crude with cleaner domestic fuels — is the way to go. And, on that front, all roads lead to America’s natural gas.

There is legislation in Washington — the NAT GAS Act — that will provide economic incentives to move the nation’s heavy-duty truck and fleet vehicles away from OPEC oil/diesel/gasoline to domestic natural gas.

With such incentives, we could utilize those nearly 8 million vehicles to cut OPEC dependency in half in five years.

The legislation has more than 180 sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. It has bipartisan support. It should be embraced, adopted and incorporated into a broader national energy strategy.

Detractors and special interests argue that government shouldn’t pick winners and losers, and that we should let the free market work. I say it’s time to pick America over OPEC, and that you have your head buried in the sand if you think energy globally is a free market. OPEC is a cartel, not a free market. We compete for energy with China. Far from a free-market economy.

A great deal has been made of the possible dangers in recovering natural gas — the fracking process itself.

Fracking has been used as far back as the 1950s, and used on more than 800,000 wells in the United States.

The oil and gas industry has a solid track record in meeting America’s energy needs safely. But we need to ensure public confidence. I’m for conducting operational audits on, say, 5 percent of those wells if that’s what it takes to address public concerns, but so long as it does not impede the development of this critical resource.

It’s time to stop the insanity, and all it will take is leadership. It’s time to demand that from Washington.

Everyone’s voice is important in this debate.

T. Boone Pickens is a Texas oil billionaire who has become a leading advocate for alternative energy.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Detroit is switching to natural gas. Two of the Big Three automakers are announcing plans to build production-line pickup trucks that will run on natural gas as well as gasoline. The world’s largest automaker, GM, will do so today:

General Motors Co. on Monday plans to disclose it will offer bi-fuel Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 pickups in the fourth quarter. The trucks will be built by GM and sent to a supplier that will retrofit them to use compressed natural-gas tanks.

Chrysler will begin building their bi-fuel pickup trucks even sooner:

Chrysler Group LLC plans to disclose it will build the first production-line pickup truck powered by natural gas. The auto maker is promising to build at least 2,000 heavy-duty Ram bi-fuel trucks that run on a combination of compressed natural gas and gasoline starting in June.

The interest in natural-gas vehicles comes as gasoline prices are on the rise again and support for using domestic natural gas to replace oil is gaining support. After years of promoting electric cars, President Obama signaled a change in the administration when he said during his January State of the Union speech the nation needs to explore all alternative energy sources.

“We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years,” Mr. Obama said in his speech. “My administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.”

Read the complete article HERE.

Mike Isaac is a staff writer at Wired. Based out of San Francisco, he traveled to Long Beach this week to cover the TED 2012 Conference. One of the individuals he profiled was Pickens Plan founder T. Boone Pickens. Excerpts from their conversation follow; a link to the entire interview runs at the end of the post.

WIRED: What do you see as the current path we’re on in terms of global energy consumption?

TBP: Well, the path is that we have had a huge change in America on energy. We now have the cheapest energy in the world. Natural gas here cost $2.40. Beijing, it’s $16. Mid-East, $15. Europe, $13. Oil, we’re at $100 a barrel where the world market price is $115. So we’ve got cheap energy. Consequently, if we had good leadership in Washington, we could rebuild our economy on the back of cheap energy. So it’s an exciting time for this country.

WIRED: What’s the status of the Pickens Plan right now?

TBP: The Natural Gas act has got 180 cosponsors and it’s ready to be voted on. And they don’t vote on it.

WIRED: What’s holding that up?

TBP: Oh, you know. Washington is Washington. But it’ll happen. Trucks are switching over right now to natural gas, because it’s a dollar and fifty cents per gallon cheaper. Look, in 1972 when diesel was so cheap, they started switching away from gasoline to diesel. Same circumstances you have now. And it took five years to do it. So now, you’ve got eight million eighteen-wheelers switching over to natural gas over the next five to seven years. When that happens, that’s equivalent to three million barrels of oil per day. That’s a lot. Right now, we import five million barrels of oil per day from OPEC. So theoretically, you could knock out 60 percent of your OPEC imports with eighteen-wheelers alone.

WIRED: What’s the end game of continuing our reliance on foreign oil?

TBP: Well, you’re paying for both sides of the war by buying OPEC oil. Money gets in the hands of the Taliban. That’s stupid. And our decision to keep our people in the Middle East is foolish. It’s unfair to the people you’re sending over there — it’s totally unnecessary.

Read the entire WIRED interview HERE.

The following editorial ran in the Washington Times on February 29, 2012.

The other day, the estimable Wall Street Journal editorial board took issue with the equally estimable T. Boone Pickens, the legendary oilman, over the Nat Gas Act. The Journal argued with its customary lucidity that Mr. Pickens’ idea of subsidizing natural gas, even for a short period, was ill-advised. To my mind, the Journal left one argument out, to wit: national security.

The Journal argued that natural gas could be supplied according to free-market practices, presenting clean and cheap energy even to those behemoth 18-wheel semis that carry their loads across America. It argued that talk of energy independence had led to numerous boondoggles for years. Ethanol had been tried for 30 years, cost $40 billion and still is costing us. It argued that wind and solar had cost huge amounts and contributed mostly to boondoggles or “Boone-Doggles,” as it headlined its piece. It argued that no subsidies had been necessary for Henry Ford to build the first Model T, nor were subsidies necessary to put gas stations across America for servicing the Model Ts.

Yes, well, let’s stop right there. America existed in the first part of the 20th century in an entirely different world than exists today. There were no terrorists capable of killing us. Oil came mostly from Texas or Oklahoma, much friendlier and more stable places than the Middle East, Venezuela or Russia.

We now import some 50 percent of our oil. We are at the mercy of conditions that are usually out of our control. If we were to have natural gas fueling our 18-wheelers, we would be back in control. Actually, we could resume shipping energy abroad. In recent years, we have found natural gas in abundance right here in America. Through technological developments such as hydraulic fracturing we have unlocked more energy than exists in all of Saudi Arabia. Let Iran or a gang of terrorists close down the Strait of Hormuz. We are still secure.

The Nat Gas Act now pending before Congress will extend and increase tax credits for natural gas and for fueling. The key clause calls for the orderly replacement of diesel-powered 18-wheeler semis and other heavy-duty vehicles with natural gas over a five- to seven-year period. It also gives tax incentives to truck-stop owners to supply natural gas. That will amount to a savings of 2.5 million barrels of oil a day.

Our reliance on oil from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will be cut by 50 percent. Mr. Pickens calls this “a game changer.” With our reliance on OPEC down by 50 percent, the oil producers will have to negotiate with us for the price they charge us for oil, not the other way around. What is more, we will have a breathing spell during which to find alternative sources of energy. That breathing spell could last a century or more. There is that much natural gas right here in America. Finally, the energy sector of our economy can and will produce thousands of high-quality jobs.

The way to justify the Nat Gas Act is via national security. American presidents since Jimmy Carter have called for America to be energy independent. They wanted us to drill for energy, to develop wind and solar, to expand our nuclear potential. Well, all that is fine, but the major justification should be national security. We spend in the neighborhood of $700 billion a year on national security. We can spend a few billion more.

America is vulnerable to terrorists, Middle Eastern instability and unfriendly powers around the world. We have a kind of miracle that has been developed over the past few years, natural gas. By passing the Nat Gas Act now we can end these threats against us. We can become an energy exporter. The bill now has 180 co-sponsors in the House. Seventy-two are Republicans. This is one act of bipartisanship that can make a huge difference in our nation’s security. The time to act is now.

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor-in-chief of the American Spectator and an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute. He is the author of the forthcoming “The Death of Liberalism” (Thomas Nelson).