T. Boone Pickens: The Plan (3 of 3)

America is addicted to foreign oil. It’s an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people. (blue text taken from The Plan at http://www.pickensplan.com/)

I might go further and remove the word foreign and just write, “America is addicted to oil…,” but it is easy to understand why T. Boone doesn’t take it that far. He is an oilman, after-all, and still in the business of feeding America's addiction. He’s just peddling a different flavor this time.

Who is T. Boone Pickens?

T. Boone Pickens, son of a landman from Oklahoma and child of the Great Depression, has amassed a net worth of $3 billion wheeling and dealing in the oil industry. He founded Mesa Petroleum, the nation's largest independent producer of domestic oil and gas, and currently runs BP Capital Management, a hedge fund that invests largely in the petroleum industry.

Pickens has become recently critical (perfectly timed to coincide with the upcoming election) of America's increasing dependence on foreign oil and has formulated a plan to cut oil imports by harnessing the wind and shifting transportation fuel from gasoline to natural gas.

Let us take a close look at T. Boone's ideas

The Problem
In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil. Today it’s nearly 70% and growing. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone – that’s four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion – it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn’t enough of it to keep up with demand. The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.

Of interesting note: President Jimmy Carter recognized the growing problem 30 years ago during the energy crises of the 70s and tried to address it. In a speech given on April 17, 1977, Carter said that the energy crises "… is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century. We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation." Carter called Americans to “conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.”

Wise words then and appropriate for today.

Pickens's Solution: Wind & Natural Gas
The United States is the the Saudi Arabia of wind power. Department of Energy reports that 20% of America’s electricity can come from wind. Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That’s a lot of money, but it’s a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it’s a bargain.

Pickens is asking America to invest as a nation by subsidizing wind energy with tax dollars. This is a reasonable request. Investing as a nation gets the ball rolling faster and cushions the financial impact on the individual consumer. But the American taxpayer better know that the plan is going to work!

Pickens has a substantial incentive in seeing that his plan be adopted. He is building the world's largest wind farm outside of Pampa, TX. He will seek tax breaks to offset construction costs and tax dollars to pay for power lines to transmit power to cities and towns.

A cheap new replacement to foreign oil. Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation. Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today. According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.

Interesting note: Pickens has admitted that Global Warming is a real phenomenon. This is quite a statement coming from a man whose business it is to keep America hooked on carbon based fuel.

An economic revival for rural America. In addition to creating construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture the turbines and blades. Plus, wind turbines don’t interfere with farming and grazing, so they don’t threaten food production or existing local economies.

No argument here.

Natural gas is our country’s second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation. We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel – reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

This is an interesting idea.

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.

Pickens admits that his plan is a temporary fix. The key words are "buy us time."

The problem is that shifting transportation fuel from one petroleum resource to another petroleum resource is risky. It's a slippery slope. It is like telling a drug addict in order to get off cocaine he should start smoking crack. It is just too easy to get stuck in the same rut. America might have a large supply of natural gas, but the Middle East has more and it is to easy to see that once we outstrip domestic supply we could start importing natural gas again and be servant to the same master.

Like his wind plan, Pickens has an incentive in seeing the nation switch from gasoline/diesel to natural gas at the pumps. His company, Mesa Petroleum is one of the largest natural gas producers, and Clean Energy, another Pickens company, is the largest provider of vehicular natural gas in North America. He stands to make significant profits if his plan is implemented.

But it will take leadership. On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.

This statement is an apolitical plea to Americans to support his plan. But be leery because Pickens's politics is anything but nonpartisan.

Pickens has funded almost exclusively Republican campaigns. He donated to George W. Bush’s Texas gubernatorial campaign and his two presidential wins. Pickens was a major contributor ($3 million) of the Swift Boat ads that sunk Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004.

If Pickens was interested in saving the nation from its addiction to oil maybe he should have found a different candidate to fund, rather that the current president who is no friend to alternative energy or environmental policy.

Pickens has also been critical of Gore's energy plan saying, “…Al Gore put forward a framework of a plan that is focused on global warming and climate issues. My plan is aimed squarely at breaking the stranglehold that foreign oil has on our country… Gore’s plan does not address this enormous problem. It is clear that he and I have two different objectives and our plans should be viewed with that in mind."

Why should the two plans be competing? Why not solve both problems? Or does Pickens feel he is fighting over potential customers?

So, what do we do?

Is T. Boone "out to save America", as Carl Pope believes?

I like to think of it this way: If a better energy plan comes along that does not heavily invest in wind energy and natural gas powered automobiles, would T. Boone step aside and say, "Good job, friend. Your ideas are superior to mine. Let us go your way," when he stands to lose billions in investments? My gut says, "No.” Pickens's business maneuvers have put him in a position to profit billions from the implementation of his plan. We should question his motives.

But, sometimes it is necessary to be the bigger man and look above the petty (money) issues. T. Boone has put forth a plan that is a step in the right direction. It's not perfect, but it is progress. If it is implemented I just hope we as a nation can stay on the right track towards ever increasing utilization of green energy without falling victim to our addiction of petroleum of a different flavor.