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

Ted Turner is living proof that success breeds success. The Atlanta-based entrepreneur revolutionized the media industry when he created CNN, the world’s first 24-hour news channel. He’s given over $1 billion to charity. Turner is also America’s largest landowner, owns more bison than any other private citizen, and successfully defended America’s Cup in 1977.

Now he’s turned his considerable talents to clean energy. Recently, Turner partnered with the Southern Co. to develop alternative energy on and off his land holdings, and he has long been one of the most vocal proponents of the Pickens Plan. On numerous occasions, he and Boone Pickens have shared the podium as the two discussed ways for America to increase its energy security by ending its addiction to imported oil and, instead, relying on cleaner domestic energy sources. In a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he shared insights on the opportunities afforded by such a bold shift.

On the need to modernize the nation’s energy grid:

We’ve got a hundred-year-old grid. It’s totally obsolete. It was geared for coal. We’re going to create lots of new jobs and we’re going to get cleaner air. We’re going to get energy independence, finally, where we’re not bankrupting ourselves buying all this oil from the Middle East. Boone Pickens, he and I are buddies. He’s a right-wing Republican and I’m more of a moderate, but we agree on this whole energy thing and we should use natural gas as a transition fuel; we have lots of it.

On whether solar power and wind energy can help end our dependence on foreign fuel:

Yes, I think they can. In fact, I know they can, if we use enough of it. Both wind and solar are intermittent somewhat, because on a cloudy day, they don’t put out at peak velocity. And when there’s no wind, the wind machines don’t run. But we can use natural gas as the base-load. Or nuclear. Or geothermal, if it will work economically.

Read the entire interview HERE.

T. Boone Pickens today released the following statement in response to remarks by President Obama at the signing of the Presidential Memorandum on Fuel Efficiency Standards:

“The President’s statement indicates that he clearly understands the national security and economic threats associated with our escalating dependence on foreign oil. He has pledged to get America off Middle East oil in ten years, and his recognition of natural gas as a domestic transportation fuel, particularly in heavy duty fleet applications, is the only way we can meet that goal.

“Natural gas is the first part of the solution since it’s the only domestic resource available that can immediately replace foreign oil as a transportation fuel in heavy-duty trucks.  Converting heavy-duty trucks and high-fuel use commercial fleet vehicles to natural gas can reduce our OPEC dependence now while we wait for technology to produce the vehicles of tomorrow.  I’m encouraged by the President’s commitment to signing energy legislation by the end of this year—if he is successful in this effort, he will be the first president in 40 years to make good on a promise to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

Currently, there is bipartisan legislation in both the House and Senate that would advance the use of natural gas. H.R. 1835 and S. 1408 (The NAT GAS Act) and The American Power Act, unveiled last week, all contain language that would replace foreign oil/diesel/gasoline with cleaner, abundant domestic natural gas in America’s heavy duty fleets.

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.

The following comments were excerpted from remarks made by T. Boone Pickens on America’s Energy Future at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles on April 26.

ON FUNDING THE TALIBAN
We’re paying for both sides of the war. Anybody that doesn’t believe that I don’t think is very smart. You look at [former CIA Director James] Woolsey’s op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago. He clearly points out that money paid for oil in the Middle East is going to fund the Taliban. Somebody that would argue with that will lose. Very few people believe that we aren’t funding both sides.

ON AMERICA’S ADDICTION TO FOREIGN OIL
What we get from the Middle East every day is five million barrels. But we import 14 million. So here we are – the only country in the world that imports almost 70 percent of the oil we use. We use 21 million barrels a day in the United States out of 85 million [produced worldwide]. So we are importing 25 percent of [the world’s oil] with four percent of the population. Is that sustainable?

I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s going to happen. But I have heard people in this country when I say that they say the reason is because we’re more highly industrialized. And my response is, “The rest of the world doesn’t give a damn.” You’re not going to use 25 percent of the oil with four percent of the people. That is not the way it is going to work.

ON ENDING AMERICA’S ADDICTION TO FOREIGN OIL
We have to get on our own resources in this country, and we do have resources, and we can accomplish that. This president said he was going to do it.

We can cut OPEC in half. We can cut five million barrels in half by just moving our 18-wheelers – eight million of them – to natural gas. They go to natural gas, and you can cut the five million in half. You will make a dent that will be felt around the world because they will say, “America is back. America now is going to take care of its own energy problems and not rely on the enemy.” That can happen. It can happen in the next five to seven years.

ON AMERICA’S ABUNDANT NATURAL GAS
We have more natural gas than any other country in the world, and we are sitting here like clucks, serious clucks. There are 12 million vehicles in the world today on natural gas, and we have 130,000. And we have the most natural gas? Now figure that one out.

A lot of people say, “Natural gas is volatile, and we wouldn’t want to get it into a transportation fuel.” Let me explain at this point that one MCF of natural gas is equivalent to seven gallons of diesel. One MCF of natural gas is $4. Seven gallons of diesel in $21. You can have an awful lot of volatility between four and twenty-one and still be cheaper than the fuel you’re displacing.

ON OTHER COUNTRIES
Look at the Germans! They have more wind turbines than other country, and they don’t have any wind! They don’t want Russian gas and oil. They’re smart enough to know that the Russian gas and oil could be a lot more dangerous and more expensive than putting wind turbines up without any wind.

ON THE PICKENS PLAN
I know it’s going to be done. There’s no question. America has to get on our own resources. We have an abundant, clean resource. It’s cleaner by 30 percent than diesel.

We’re going to get it done. America is going to get it done because all of us are going to put pressure on Congress. I’ve got 1.7 million people signed up with PickensPlan.com. Sign up with me. It’s all about energy. It’s all about energy for us and generations in the future. We are going to get it done! It’s going to be done this year.

Watch the complete video HERE.

COMMENTS EDITED AND CONDENSED BY ERIC O’KEEFE

The following comments were excerpted from remarks made by Ted Turner at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles on April 26.

ON THE FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN CLEAN ENERGY
It’s just as big a win as cable TV was going to be. People didn’t want three channels. They wanted a hundred. I don’t know what they’d do with them, but you like to have choices. We’re a country of choice.

This is such a no-brainer. First of all, if we don’t do it, we’re going to miss the greatest business opportunity of the 21st century, which is going to be clean, renewable, high-tech energy. There is going to be a lot more improvements.

Not only do I like wind and solar, because they are free and not depletable, but I want to see us do more work on geothermal, too. This is where the big money is going to be made. If we don’t do it, China and the eastern countries are going to do it. We need to be the leaders in clean renewable energy. Let’s move on. It’s time to move. Clean up the atmosphere. Save the environment.

ON THE BEST TIME TO DEVELOP AMERICA’S ENERGY SECURITY
We’re out of time now. We’ve got to start. We’ve got to stop doing the dumb things and start doing the smart things.

I’m putting solar panels all over my parking lot in Atlanta. It’s going to pay 70 percent of the building’s energy cost. And we’re getting a tax subsidy.

ON WASHINGTON
I love America. I’ll die for America tomorrow. I want to live for America. But our government has trouble handling more than big problem at a time. I ran CNN and the Cartoon Network, and decisions had to be made every day for both of them. And they were different. And I had hanging over me the knowledge that at any given time the Cartoon Network’s audience was twice as big as CNN’s. That made me wonder about our future too.

The playing field is tilted for coal and oil at the current time, and I want to get rid of both of them as fast as we can and get on to natural gas, which we have right here. But we’ve got to get there.

ON THE PICKENS PLAN
But I’ll tell you one thing - if the people in this room all decide they’re going to come out of here, and they’re not going to relax until we get this energy bill through Congress, pass it with the immigration bill or without it, just so long as we get a good energy bill that protects our children and our country and our livelihoods and our security - by God, the Pickens Plan will do it. And we can do it.

Watch the complete video HERE.

COMMENTS EDITED AND CONDENSED BY ERIC O’KEEFE

Senator Lindsey Graham told POLITICO “[i]f our country doesn’t get an energy vision and start incentivizing alternative sources of energy, this whole international movement to clean up the planet is going to pass us by, and we’re going to be following China instead of leading China.”

In a wide ranging interview, Graham also singled out the fact that the U.S. is becoming more dependent on imported oil from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the primary goals of pending legislation should be to end this dangerous trend:

“What I’m trying to … do is stop funding both sides of the war. After Sept. 11, I think it’s crazy that we’re more dependent on foreign oil than we were before.”

The South Carolina Republican discussed the energy reform bill now being crafted in the Senate whose many provisions could encourage the use of trucks powered by natural gas, the development of hybrid vehicles, and expand offshore drilling.

“The goals of the legislation include reducing U.S. dependency on Middle East oil by 30 percent to 40 percent in the next two decades, creating jobs, reducing pollution and improving energy efficiency, said Graham.

Read the entire interview and article HERE.

BP CEO Tony Hayward

BP CEO Tony Hayward said that Congress should work harder to promote natural gas, which emits half the carbon emissions of coal. Despite the fact that coal is responsible for about one-third of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions, Hayward noted that it was “disproportionately favored” in climate legislation in the House of Representatives.

In a speech on energy security and climate change at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Tuesday, Hayward pointed out conflicting elements of current energy policy in the U.S.

“It’s surprising the U.S. is still building coal-fired power plants,” Hayward said. He also cautioned that electric vehicles powered by coal-generated electricity will not significantly reduce carbon emissions.

BP established itself as one of the first major oil companies to address problems associated with climate change. The company’s “Beyond Petroleum” campaign is among the most forward-looking in the oil and gas industry. Hayward has been BP’s chief executive officer since 2007.

Read more HERE.

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.