The Oklahoma Congressman told the Associated Press that his bill encouraging the use of compressed natural gas, H.R. 1835, will make it out of committee and be passed by the House.

Known as the NAT GAS Act, H.R. 1835 enjoys broad bipartisan support and has 87 cosponsors. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Robert Menedez and cosponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But like many other bills, the House version remains at a standstill in committee while Congress debates next steps on health care.

“The whole crux of this issue is building the infrastructure, so you can stop off and fill up with natural gas,” Boren told the AP. “If we pass this legislation, you’re going to see that happen very quickly, within the next couple of years.” 

H.R. 1835 includes numerous incentives, both to automakers and to consumers. Another key aspect encourages the production of natural gas-powered vehicles.

Said Boren, “All the ingredients are there for something to happen. I’ve learned so much of this is just persistence. It’s just dogged determination and eventually we’ll pull it through.”

Americans are finally waking up to ending our addiction to foreign oil.
I think it’s becoming clear to Americans, clearer every day, that our continued over reliance on foreign oil is not just an environmental but an economic disaster to the country. People appreciate that while we will have great sources of renewable fuel down the road, but we need something now. And what is available now and what we have discovered a great deal of domestically in the United States is natural gas.

Just a few years ago it appeared that we were running out of natural gas.
We are fortunate by virtue of geology and science and technology to have the ability now to access natural gas from shale deposits that in the past were economically off limits. I think it’s a tremendous opportunity. But we have to be smart enough to take advantage of that opportunity, to allow the shale to be developed in a way that we access that natural gas and then to put in place policies that encourage using that natural gas, not to burn it in power plants but to use it to replace oil.

That’s a story a lot of people now know, including New Yorkers.
One of the most exciting natural gas discoveries is in the Marcellus Shale, which is largely in the Northeast – Pennsylvania and New York – and creates a tremendous opportunity for economic growth plus the creation of a clean domestic source of natural gas.

You mentioned the environment.
Absolutely. We’re all concerned about our jobs in today’s economy, but we also have to be intelligent about our environment going forward. If we can replace dirty fuels with clean fuels like natural gas, we win on both fronts. It’s a domestic source. It helps our economy. And it is a very clean burning fuel. When we replace dirtier fuels with it, we will have cleaner air and less health problems.

So to me it’s quite clear that as Boone Pickens has been advocating we use it as an interim transition for heavy vehicles instead of using diesel fuel that pollutes and comes from foreign sources, natural gas makes tremendous sense.

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

Former New York Gov. George Pataki sees a new transmission grid as central to America's economic security, energy security, and national defense.

This country has an antiquated, out-of-date energy transmission system.
There’s no question. We need a high voltage transmission system across the United States that currently doesn’t exist.

Building a high voltage transmission system is an investment in America’s future.
You see investments like this throughout our country’s history. Back in Abraham Lincoln’s day, he advocated and saw the creation of the first transcontinental railroad, and we saw with Eisenhower the national highway building program. Both of these had profound positive economic consequences and national security consequences for our country.

Now we have a fragmented electric transmission system that is unreliable – we’ve seen blackouts – but equally as important, it doesn’t allow us to access the domestic sources of energy that are out there.
These resources have the potential to shape America’s energy future.

Wind power from the Great Plains, geothermal power from the Rocky Mountain states, solar power from the Southwest - these are tremendous resources that we should be utilizing.  But you have to be able to get the power to the consumer. Having a national transmission system that is privately run and privately financed but with the support of the federal government on the permitting side would be an enormous step towards a stronger economic and national security country as well as a cleaner country.

Think of the dent it would make on our balance of trade.
When we have to import not just billions but hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign oil every year, the transfer of wealth is unprecedented in the history of the world. It hurts us from an economic standpoint. It hurts us as we develop job opportunities for our children and future generations. And it also makes us geopolitically vulnerable when enemies of the United States threaten to use oil as a political weapon. And certainly you don’t have to look any further than Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, which is a significant source of foreign oil to the United States, to understand that this is a person who despises the United States and everything we stand for and wouldn’t hesitate if he thought it could work to use that oil to hurt our country.

So it is certainly not just economically and environmentally intelligent but it is the patriotic and right thing to do from the national security standpoint to develop these policies that will allow us to achieve greater energy independence.

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

Pat Vecchio (right) and Gov. George Pataki (left) welcome Boone Pickens to Smithtown, New York.

You’ve been a forceful advocate of alternative energy. 
It’s common sense. We can’t continue on this road of (1) polluting our atmosphere, (2) depending on foreign oil, and (3), as someone who once had a respiratory problem, I’m well aware of the particulates that are in our air. We need to change that. 

What changes have you implemented in Smithtown?
We had an opportunity to establish new contracts with our garbage carters and require them to use only dedicated natural-gas-fueled trucks. I jumped all over that. That decision was made in less than three weeks because we needed to build a new fueling station and for 22 brand new CNG refuse trucks to be ordered and built before the old garbage contracts ended in six months. The town council supported me 100 percent, and we mandated that some 22 garbage carter trucks had to be dedicated natural gas fueled. Six months after our decision we had a new CNG vehicle fueling station and an entirely new refuse collection fleet running on cleaner, cheaper and domestic fuel.

In addition to that, five or six years ago, every town building which operated on home heating oil was changed to natural gas. It’s less expensive, which wasn’t the main reason. The main reason was the environment. Natural gas is cleaner burning and you don’t have the problems associated with leaking underground oil tanks.

That’s impressive.
That’s not all. We’ve also gone to natural-gas-powered cars and pickup trucks, hybrid gasoline electric vehicles, and electric cars. We’ve changed over two brand-new heavy duty trucks for our highway department to run on natural gas, and we’ve repowered two other older heavy duty trucks to natural gas engines. We’ve also put a natural gas fueled street sweeper in service, and the budget for 2010 will include even more of those environmentally-friendly trucks. By the way, 15 percent of our electricity already comes from wind power.

That makes sense. You’re right on Long Island Sound.
And next year’s capital budget will include a wind turbine up at our recycling facility that will help reduce electricity costs at that plant, which is the town’s highest consumer of electric power. We are also installing a 30kW solar panel system on the recycling facility roof. So Smithtown is on top of the issue of the environment. We support alternative and renewable energy. It makes sense for both environmental and energy security reasons.

Are other communities on Long Island following your lead?
Yes, the Town of Brookhaven, which is the largest town in Suffolk County. It goes from one shore to the other and has approximately 400,000 residents. They have now copied our natural gas refuse truck initiative, and their new contract for garbage carters requires natural gas trucks. In addition to that, the Town of Huntington, which is somewhat larger than Smithtown, will also be doing that in 2010. This has enabled us to go to the private market and get the firm of Clean Energy to build us a new natural gas fueling station at our recycling facility. Because the towns are contiguous, both towns will be able to use that facility and not go far distances to refuel.

In addition, we have had conversations with a fairly large school district about their opportunity to use our new CNG fueling station and having their bus fleet converted to natural gas.

The need for new sources of cleaner, cheaper and domestic energy is critical. The technology for wind, solar and natural gas is available, and the time for action is now!

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

Domestic Natural Gas and Propane Can Deliver Savings And School Kids, Says Commissioner Michael Williams of the Texas Railroad Commission

Everyone remembers last year’s skyrocketing fuel costs. Families got hit hard. Small businesses and big businesses felt it too. So did school districts.
School districts are not unlike what you do in your family and what I do in my family. At the beginning of the school year, they sit down and budget what their fuel costs are going to be, and when gasoline and diesel prices jumped about 100 percent last year they had some tough decisions to make. Some cut routes. Others took money out of academic activities. And it was just so they could get their kids to school.

The effects were felt all across Texas.
There’s nothing more iconic than the yellow school bus, and there’s nothing that people cherish more than their sons and daughters. We’ve got 36,000 schools buses that move our four-and-a-half-million youngsters around the state.

And you see those numbers as an opportunity.
Over the course of the next seven to ten years it is my goal that we convert at least 10,000 of those buses to natural gas and/or propane buses.

That would have a huge impact.
We saw that large school districts are buying propane in bulk or buying it probably $2 cheaper than they would if they’re paying for gasoline and diesel. And they were getting the federal tax credit returned back to them. So it can provide significant savings for districts that make the conversion.

That’s a very Texan approach.
Texans think of their state as the energy capital of the country, and we have significant resources in terms of infrastructure. We have the capacity to produce particular alternative fuels: natural gas and propane. If we can create a transportation market that utilizes these Texas products, then there’s no doubt there’s going to be the opportunity to enhance jobs, whether it be auto manufacturing or truck building, conversions, the guy who’s installing the refueling station, and even the guy who’s going to be maintaining the vehicle. There are all kinds of opportunities that are available to us. What we’ve got to do is sort of in a smart way help us, as a state and as a country, to make the transition from the old to the new.

The Lone Star State can really show some leadership.
What we’ve got to do is sort of recognize that we have an opportunity obviously to lead, no doubt, and what we want to do is to help the state and the country in a pro-growth way to make that conversion and make that transformation. Texans are willing to do that. There’s no doubt that obviously we have a long history and a long marriage with crude. We recognize that crude is valuable. But we’ve also got some other resources. And I think Texans are open to that and they’re willing to do that. We’ve just got to make sure policy makers foster this in a pro-growth way.

The reasons are many, and they are compelling.
I think what Texans understand, perhaps intuitively, is that there are three basic reasons. Cost is one. Obviously these fuel sources under the right dynamics are cheaper, they’re cleaner, and in two of our urban centers, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston, we’ve got to be concerned about air quality. So they’re cleaner. Texans really understand the fact that if we are burning a fuel to move our cars, trucks, and tractors that is home-grown and that is ours, that’s money we don’t send to foreign folks. That’s money we don’t send to folks who may not like us. That’s money that stays here that enhances this economy and the quality of life for folks that live here. So Texans understand all three of those, but the independent streak in us understands the latter with a whole lot more.

Starting with school buses just make so much sense.
If we could get some kind of critical massive conversion to school buses in every city and urban community in the state, you would have an example and a demonstration of using a fuel that’s home-grown, that’s cheap, and that inures our energy security.

In my Breathe Easy tours we’ve had some 430-odd school officials come to the various tours. Since we’ve started doing them, there have been another 14 school districts and municipalities that have begun buying either natural gas or propane buses. School officials understand. We just have to be aggressive in making sure they have the data. If they have the data, then they have the information and they’ll make a decision that’s in the best interests of their districts, their taxpayers, and their kids.

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

There are so many simple steps we can take right away.
I just met with [Energy] Secretary Chu and was talking with him about mail trucks. I said, “Why aren’t mail trucks utilizing either natural gas or fuel cell technology? Let’s pilot those. Let’s get them out there.”

Converting one refuse truck from diesel to natural gas is the equivalent of taking as many as 325 cars off the road in terms of pollution reduction. 

Some people will say, “It’s a little costly.” 
It is not as costly as continuing to export our dollars abroad. It’s not as costly as filling up the coffers of our enemies.

Isn’t that incredible? We’re funding both sides of the War on Terrorism?
Thomas Freidman makes a great point. He said we have an energy policy that essentially should be called “Leave No Mullah Behind.” We end up not only exporting dollars abroad, but then the madrasas take the money and send that to train terrorists and to vomit hate about America. So we have to fund our troops, export the dollars abroad, and then we’re providing the money for the mullahs to send the money to the terrorists. What sense does that make?

The point is there’s not a single answer. There are many.
As Boone says, whether it’s natural gas, whether it’s wind, whether it’s photovoltaic, whether it’s geothermal, whether it’s fuel cells, whether it’s drilling, whether it’s clean coal, nuclear - we’re going to need everything. Let’s just get the job done on behalf of the American people. 

I gather you’re bringing that message to Hartford.
That’s right. We’re looking forward to welcoming Boone to Connecticut for a Pickens Plan town hall meeting this summer. Afterwards, I’m even going to spring and bring T. Boone to Augie and Ray’s in East Hartford. He’ll love an old hot dog joint like Augie and Ray’s.

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

In an article titled “How Obama Made Energy Platform ‘Pop,’” Washington Post staff writers Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin take a close look at then Senator Barack Obama last year as his campaign considered ways to address America’s addiction to foreign oil. The article, which ran in yesterday’s Post, also included an analysis of his energy strategy since Inauguration Day. Some key points stand out.

Beginning last summer, Senator Obama “knew there was a moral case for addressing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, but this time, he realized he could make a political and economic case for it.”

It’s a message that members of the Pickens Plan Army can identify with because at the very same time, in fact, on the very same day mentioned in the article, July 8, T. Boone Pickens launched the Pickens Plan in New York City to reduce America’s escalating dependence on foreign oil and to end this threat to our economic and national security.

The Pickens Plan quickly gained momentum last summer in part because of sky-high gasoline prices. The response to the record-setting increase in the cost of gasoline was not lost on the Senator’s campaign strategists either. “And top advisers say internal polling showed that with gasoline prices at more than $4 a gallon, the American public was open to an energy platform based on economic competitiveness and national security.”

Since January 20, the President and the new Congress have tackled energy issues head on, a development that the writers duly noted:

“Now, four months into his presidency, Obama has elevated energy and climate issues to near the top of his agenda; he has made them pop by packaging them as ways to create “green” jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on imports of foreign oil.”

Read the entire Washington Post article HERE.

AWEA CEO Denise Bode moderating the roundtable with Governors Culver of Iowa, Doyle of Wisconsin, Granholm of Michigan, and Strickland of Ohio at WINDPOWER 2009 in Chicago.

Boone was absolutely floored by the attendance at WINDPOWER 2009. The world’s largest annual conference went from 13,000 attendees in 2008 to more than 23,000 this year.
Isn’t that unbelievable! It really is all about hope. And that’s part of what Boone has done in his messaging over the last nine months. He’s told people a story about having an American energy policy and about building American jobs and using American ingenuity to really develop a brand-new manufacturing base.

I think that message has gotten out far and wide. The president delivered that message as he was running for office, and many members of Congress have delivered that message. So I think there is a broad sense of hope.

Over the past few years, wind energy has become a much more viable option, too.
It absolutely has. I think from the standpoint of the technology being really ready to deploy. I think we’re there on that. We have policymakers really focused on it. And then fortunately we have brilliant spokesmen like Boone developing an energy plan that’s not dependent on some other country telling us what to do.

Establishing an energy plan is long overdue.
Right now we have 300,000 megawatts of wind projects that are in line around the country with the various power pools queued up and ready to be put on the transmission grid when there’s sufficient capacity to put it on. That’s enough to have or meet the 20 to 25 percent of our electric supply target with wind alone.

Many see wind energy not just as a power source but as an enormous opportunity for economic growth.
There’s a lot of interest in wind being created by the manufacturing jobs. We have facilities, either manufacturing or wind farms, in 48 states right now. Last year we added 55 new manufacturing facilities and 35,000 new jobs. Look at the new facilities being announced in Arkansas. Look at Kansas where Siemens just announced a major new facility. And Iowa! Iowa has nine manufacturing facilities in that state. Gov. Culver of Iowa is the co-chairman of the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition. You talk about an advocate for American energy.

When the Pickens Plan caught up with Tom Friedman, he said he believes that one of the most important economic opportunities for our country is to develop opportunities in renewable and alternative energies not only to power America but to export that technology around the world.
I think that is really the story. The story is about jobs in the U.S. and about creating a brand-new manufacturing base at a time when we’re losing manufacturing jobs. Wind energy manufacturing is a perfect complement to what we need right now because the auto industry and the component manufacturers in the auto industry are losing jobs. The industry is contracting, and the people who build all the components for wind turbines have the same skill set. So it’s an industry that can transition from making autos over to making the 8,000 parts that go into a wind turbine. So it’s a perfect opportunity for us to really change things.

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

American Electric Power's Mike Morris Recognizes That Our Country Has Gone Far Too Long Without An Energy Plan

What do you hear about the Pickens Plan?
People ask me, “What do you think Boone’s up to?” I say it’s the simplest thing in the world. He is up to making America dependent on no one in the oil transportation marketplace.

Give us your take on the Pickens Plan.
It’s a logical, well-thought through plan, and it has really got people focused. This is really impressive. It’s time America had an energy plan. For far too long we haven’t – and look where we are today.

Getting people focused is a huge challenge, isn’t it?
Raising the awareness of the population is what this is all about because if we’re going to have an energy plan in America, it’s going to take this kind of leadership. It’s going to take people like Boone and us and others to really raise that army of voters.

Boone has done an excellent job with the Pickens Plan to bring an additional focus not only on how to bring renewables into the marketplace but the reality of finally addressing the issue of our dependence on imported oil. I appreciate that oil is a world commodity, and I appreciate that we’ll probably always consume some. But we can make a huge difference, and in fact we should make a huge difference in the amount of other sources of energy that we put into the automobile.

What are some of the other sources besides foreign oil?
Plug-in electric hybrids are one source. We also can take compressed natural gas, which is used really worldwide in a much higher percentage than it is here, and change that technology as well.

These are all really very solid ideas, and taken together they can really approach this issue that so dogs our country: how to make certain we have adequate energy. How do we get renewables in? How do we at long last take on the challenge of energy independence?

That really is part of the reason that we continue at American Electric Power to talk about the issue of having an interstate electric transmission grid that mirrors the interstate highway system. Having such a system will allow us to harness the vast resources of solar, wind and geothermal energy from remote areas where it is plentiful and deliver it to places where it’s needed.

It sounds like we’re actually starting to address these key questions. These discussions are now taking place.
American Electric Power will be in the middle of that along with great American leaders like Boone Pickens.

REMARKS CONDENSED AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE FROM PICKENS PLAN INTERVIEWS

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is a Leader in Helping America Establish Its Energy Security

It sounds like Kansas is going to be a big winner in this new energy economy.
I certainly think we’re going to be a big winner, and I think if we play it right we can be a big winner. I think we can be a big winner in base-load power generation. I think we can be a big winner in renewable power generation. I think we can be a big winner in fuel generation, whether it’s oil and gas or ethanol and even cellulosic ethanol. I just think it’s a key part of our future to provide the energy our country needs in a form, with the security, and at a price that people can afford.

When it comes to energy legislation, what are some of the key points that you and your colleagues are considering?
At the end of the day everybody’s very sensitive to cost. That’s the dividing issue. “Yes, I’m interested. Now what’s the price?” And that’s where most people end up focusing. “What do the people of my state have to pay for this?” A very legitimate question.

So I think we’ve got to do these things in a cost-competitive way, and if we do that and are sensitive about that and try to build things in over a time frame where people can do it at the best opportunity, not by forcing it, I think we can move the ball a long way.

What about our country’s transmission grid? It’s out-of-date and incapable of bringing wind and solar from remote areas such as Western Kansas to major population centers.
That’s one of the real tricks. This has to be adequately addressed, and we have to pay for the transmission. I think that’s going to be the big thing that we’re all looking at because everybody’s very sensitive to the cost of utilities. It’s one of those things that needs to be phased in over a period of time so people have normal costs, only you do it on a renewable instead of a fossil-fuel basis in some cases. Or you just look more toward the renewable and you don’t force it over a time period that drives your cost up. I think that’s the key. We’ve got to watch how it’s done and bank into it, not force it on a hard turn.

That’s quite a balancing act.
It is. My focus at this point in time has been how we can take practical steps and balance our economy with energy and the environment. The three E’s. Getting those balanced to where they can all move forward together. That’s what you’ve got to do.

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

Boone Pickens joins Congressmen Dan Boren, John Larson, and John Sullivan as they announce the bipartisan NAT GAS Act of 2009 at the Capitol.

Can you believe the progress that has been made over the last year in developing an energy plan for America?
I think we’re moving in the right direction. I think without Boone out there really pushing, we wouldn’t be where we are. Every day it seems to get better, but there’s still more work to be done.

What sort feedback have you been getting from your colleagues in the House of Representatives on tackling this problem?
I think the discussion over the last few months has been about our children and our grandchildren. Every dollar that we export is a dollar that is in the hands of people who in many instances do not like the United States. In fact, some of them hate the way of life that we have and the freedoms that we enjoy. I think it’s important for our own national security that we work on legislation like the NAT GAS Act.

Domestically produced natural gas can play such a crucial role.
Why not use a resource that we have in the United States that’s clean-burning and abundant instead of shipping our dollars to nations that don’t like us?

Tell me a little about your bill the NAT GAS Act. How many cosponsors does it have?
We’re up to 29. We just had a two-week recess, and most members were back in their districts, so I think you’ll see that number increase. Hopefully, quite dramatically.

What sort of bipartisan support does it have?
The NAT GAS Act is truly bipartisan. That’s one of its strengths. John Sullivan (R-OK) coauthored the bill with me and John Larson (D-CT). Tom Cole from my home state of Oklahoma is another Republican on board. He just became the 28th cosponsor or sponsor of the bill. I’ve also had many Republicans come up and say we would love to support our bill.

The fact that Boone is actually identifying the bill as H.R. 1835 in his speeches and saying, “Call your local member of Congress” is helping us get broad bipartisan support. Having Boone Pickens say this is important.

When Boone says, “Write your Congressman” or “Call your Representative and tell them to cosponsor this bill,” it’s better than me asking. I’m going to get some people to support the bill, but having the Army out there is the sort of grassroots support that makes a difference. We need the Army. We need people making those calls.

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

SandRidge Energy CEO Tom Ward (center) and Executives from Occidental Petroleum Break Ground on the $800 Million Century Plant in West Texas

You’re an industry veteran, yet from what I gather SandRidge is doing something new when it comes to producing natural gas.
We just broke ground on a new plant in West Texas, and we’re partnering with Occidental Petroleum on this venture. It’s called the Century Plant. It’s a win-win opportunity for SandRidge, for Oxy, and for America’s energy independence.

How’s that?
Roughly 55 percent of the gas that comes out of the ground is actually CO2.

Carbon dioxide.
That’s right. The remaining 45 percent is methane, which is what natural gas companies like SandRidge supply to its customers as fuel for houses.

So SandRidge is not in the CO2 business.
Exactly.

But Oxy is.
Correct. Oil producers such as Oxy use CO2 for enhanced oil recovery in older fields.

So after primary and secondary recoveries have been exhausted, Oxy pumps CO2 into an older well to increase production.
That’s why this new Century Plant stands out. The investment that’s being made by SandRidge and Oxy will not only produce the gas that I’ve just mentioned, but according to Oxy’s press releases I believe they say they’ll be producing 50,000 more barrels a day of oil that would not have been possible if not for the CO2 coming out of this plant. That’s 50,000 barrels a day that will not need to be imported. Plus, over the next two years 500 jobs are added to the local economy as this $800 million plant is built.

That’s what Boone has been talking about. He’s for everything American.
I think Boone has started a movement that is really gathering steam. And that’s what I see happening, even in our operational planning and development. Over time, there will be other CO2 pipelines and projects. The United States has billions of barrels of domestic oil that has been discovered, but that cannot be produced without tertiary recovery using CO2. This will help America become less reliant on imported oil. In addition, as the CO2 is permanently sequestered underground through the tertiary recovery process, it allows companies like SandRidge to access significant natural gas reserves that would otherwise be uneconomical to produce. These natural gas resources can also help alleviate our dependence on foreign oil. And that’s what we focus on.

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

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman

Tell me about the natural gas corridor that runs all the way across Utah from Idaho down to Arizona.
Once we started taking seriously the whole notion of natural gas as a legitimate form of transportation fuel, then we’ve got to get out and prove the point. You can talk policy, but nobody’s ever going to accept it unless there’s a demonstration model. So Utah has a few good entrepreneurs who are getting very good at converting cars from traditional to natural gas. The next logical step is let’s see if we can’t designate a strip of highway as a natural gas corridor and ensure that you can get from point A to point B without any disruption. And that would mean that we’ve got to have more in the way of support infrastructure. You’ve got to have filling stations along the way.

How was that accomplished?
We went to our natural gas provider here in Utah, Questar, and they loved the idea. We talked about it and threw it around a little bit, and they decided that it was something that they very much wanted to take seriously. So we combined efforts. We rolled it out in our State of the State speech, and we designated our major interstate corridor from the Idaho border all the way down to the Arizona border as a natural gas corridor. Questar has now bolstered the infrastructure that they promised to ensure that a car can get from border to border now without running out of natural gas.

How has the state’s new natural gas corridor been received?
You would have been very proud at the rollout of the announcement. We had the head of UPS here locally, Stephen Goodrich is his name, and he’s now talking about converting his fleet, which is probably one of the biggest fleets in our state. That’s a huge deal. And so you start getting serious, you start getting beyond just talk, and you start putting some ideas out front for people to actually see and realize, and it’s amazing the impact it has in terms of people wanting to be part of something that, overall, is good for the economy, good for the environment, and good for American productivity.

As chairman of the Western Governors’ Association, have you been able to interest any of your counterparts in a multi-state natural gas corridor?
You know we’ve talked a little bit about that in the broader planning sense and have kind of taken it up in the Western Governors’ Association by way of conversation and discussion. California has some infrastructure. We have some infrastructure. And Colorado’s interested. So why not make it a reality whereby one can drive from Denver all the way to Southern California without worrying about running out of fuel?

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

Rep. Mike Ross

Arkansas has a lot of home-grown energy. 
We have what’s known as the Fayetteville Shale which is an area where we’re discovering a lot of natural gas. Natural gas, of course, is one of the cleanest forms of energy available to us. It’s available here at home in America, and we need to use as much natural gas as we can to replace imported oil as an energy source.

What’s the story on the Fayetteville Shale?
It’s a very large deposit of natural gas that kind of runs across the central part of Arkansas. Some say it will even rival the Barnett Shale in Texas. There was a time when no one knew the Fayetteville Shale existed. Then there was a time where they knew it existed, but they didn’t have the technology to extract the natural gas from it. And then the technology came along where we could recover natural gas from the Fayetteville Shale, but the economics of it didn’t work out.

Finally, in this new 21st century economy that we live in, we’ve been able to utilize new technologies to find ways to recover that natural gas here at home in an affordable manner. And in doing so, we’re reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and it’s good for the environment.

What about renewables?
Arkansas unfortunately is not a wind state, but we’ve become home to the manufacturing of a lot of wind turbines. So while these wind turbines are being located in other parts of the country where there’s more wind, many of the turbines are actually being built in Arkansas.

Gov. Mike Beebe has done a tremendous job with his economic development team in landing numerous companies that make wind turbines in Arkansas, creating hundreds of new green-collar jobs here at home.

Again, while we’re not a wind state, we’re able to help create this new American-made green energy by producing or manufacturing many of the wind turbines right here in Arkansas.

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

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison tours the Southwest Texas Project Nuclear Power Plant in Wadsworth.

Can you believe the predicament we’re in?
So many other countries in the world are looking for ways to provide their own energy. They don’t have the advantage of our abundant natural resources. We have them, yet we aren’t using them. It’s unprecedented. Name another country with natural resources that doesn’t use them. We have the capability to do this and we’re turning our backs on it. It’s unbelievable.

Does Washington get it? Are concrete solutions emerging to end our dependency on foreign oil?
I believe Washington gets that we have a problem. I think Washington gets that importing more than 60 percent of our oil is not good for America, both in national security and economic security.

But Washington doesn’t seem to connect the problem with the solution, and they are going opposite the overriding goal, which is Boone Pickens’s overriding goal, and that is use every resource we have right now. We can look at all of the vast opportunities for the future, but we have opportunities today that we’re missing, and that’s where Washington is not connecting the dots.

Instead of saying, “Here’s the problem, and here’s the solution,” the solution being discussed right now doesn’t answer the problem. Talking about research that’s going to develop technology and harness the wind and get it into an electric grid on an ongoing basis is exactly what we ought to be doing for the next 30 years, but today we have the ability to cut imports by 25 percent just by beginning to drill in an environmentally friendly way for our own natural gas and our own oil, including ANWR and our shores, our east and west coasts and the Gulf of Mexico. That should be Phase One.

What’s Phase Two?
Phase Two is working on a replacement as soon as we possibly can. That would be the responsible, long-term solution for America’s energy problem.

You are for tackling both phases head-on.
That’s right.

On the one hand, you support expanding domestic drilling.
Absolutely. I am seeing so many signs from this administration that they want to pull back the opportunity to drill on our east and west coasts and on the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, which I think is totally the wrong direction. We should be doing what Boone Pickens has been advocating and that is access all potential sources of energy to wean ourselves from foreign imports. As we are doing research for renewables and clean energy going forward, we need to be using what we have in abundance. Frankly, the advantage that America has is our natural resources. They could take us through this period until we develop the new technology. Congress last year ended the moratorium on drilling on the east and west coasts, and now the Obama administration is threatening to go in the other direction and stop states from even exercising their rights to explore off their own shores, which Virginia has taken the steps to do.

You are also a proponent of funding key research programs.
I am. The purpose of the CREST Act [Creating Renewable Energy through Science and Technology] is to develop these emerging avenues for new energy sources. Our bill directs the core to be established within the National Science Foundation. You would have research institutions represented. You would have industry represented, state officials, and our departments of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, the NOAA, and the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. And this would bring together the best minds in energy innovation, including industry, which can start looking at some of the things that are very, very new but have potential.

You’ve been a big backer of the Lone Star Wind Alliance.
Absolutely. The Lone Star Wind Alliance was selected by the Department of Energy to do the planning and designing for renewable and offshore wind production. The development of these new sources was put in the hands of this great alliance, which includes many of our universities as well as some of our state offices. Texas is the perfect place to do this because we have so much opportunity in these areas. Texas is the largest producer of wind energy in America. We also have huge amounts of solar power. Making wind production and solar power more efficient and more usable is something that Texas is advantageously situated to do. And then of course we have enormous potential for cellulosic ethanol production and the new biofuels. The Gulf of Mexico offers us opportunities to generate power from currents and waves. We’ve just got so much capability in Texas to do this research, and what we need to do now is open all of our avenues, our great natural resources of oil and natural gas as well as these other opportunities.

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