From the Desk of T. Boone Pickens

Army:

It is important that no one tries to use the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico to their own benefit, but I wanted to share withyou two recent newspaper editorials that help make the case for the PickensPlan in light of the current situation.

One is from the Houston Chronicle illustrating the effect of the oil spill onour dependence on foreign oil:

"To put things in perspective, if the BP spill is flowing at 20,000 barrels perday, that makes for an environmental catastrophe, but...it's roughly one-tenthof 1 percent of what we use daily."

"Here's another number that might help: 700 billion barrels of oil equivalent.That's a rough estimate of how much natural gas this country has, mostlytrapped in shale formations from Texas to Colorado and in the WestVirginia-Pennsylvania-New York region. It's accessible without drilling throughdeep waters and the product is twice as clean as coal."

Click here to read the full editorial Oil by the numbers
While waiting and hoping for an end to the spill, let’s address our insatiable demand
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 3, 2010, 8:17PM

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The oil spill has left the central Gulf of Mexico awash in goo and the nervously watching American public buried in a blizzard of numbers: 20,000 barrels per day gushing into Gulf waters; 20,000 workers striving around the clock to plug the spill; nearly 1,400 vessels mobilized for the effort; millions of feet of boom to corral the oil; a million or so gallons of dispersant to break it up. And much more of everything in prospect as the effort continues to plug the runaway well and stop the mess from widening.

We'll offer one number that hasn't received the attention it deserves: 20 million. That's roughly the number of barrels of oil consumed each day by this country's cars, trucks, heavy equipment — everything.

It's a big number. To put things in perspective, if the BP spill is flowing at 20,000 barrels per day, that makes for an environmental catastrophe, but it amounts to a statistical rounding error when compared with daily U.S. oil consumption. It's roughly one-tenth of 1 percent of what we use daily.

We bring this up to call attention to the obvious: If this country is serious about reducing our oil dependency and, by inference, the amount of drilling at great depths offshore, we'll have to make some major inroads on the demand side. Short of that, shutting down drilling and production for any length of time in the Gulf of Mexico is a nonstarter. Gulf production provides us with 30 percent of the oil we produce domestically. Take it away without cutting consumption and you get only one thing: increased dependency on foreign oil, much of it controlled by countries that don't like us.

The Gulf spill has turned into a vexation for the Obama administration, framed curtly by the president's frustration-filled plea to White House aides to “plug the damn hole.”

We share Obama's pain. But that plug may not come for a while yet. Let's make the best use of the interim, Mr. President: Put it to use marshaling public opinion in the cause of cutting the nation's demand.

Here's another number that might help: 700 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That's a rough estimate of how much natural gas this country has, mostly trapped in shale formations from Texas to Colorado and in the West Virginia-Pennsylvania-New York region. It's accessible without drilling through deep waters and the product is twice as clean as coal.

Maybe now is the time, Mr. President, to have a look at the energy independence plan put forward by the wildcatter T. Boone Pickens — especially his proposal to convert our nation's fleet of 8 million 18-wheeler trucks from imported diesel to domestically produced natural gas.

That would take time, and it wouldn't be cheap. A new infrastructure would have to be put in place. But it would make better use of a fuel that this country has in abundance, and which is more accessible than deepwater oil.

Focusing on future options (including nuclear power) beats the alternative of simply wringing your hands and wagging fingers at the oil companies, Mr. President. There'll be time enough for blaming after the Deepwater Horizon well is plugged and the Gulf's cleanup is under way.

Now is the time to point the way forward with cleaner alternatives that help build that bridge to a sustainable energy future we all want.

We believe the American people are primed for a mission that makes us more secure and creates good jobs while cleaning up the environment. It's your moment to lead, Mr. President. Take full advantage of it.



(http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7035607.html). AS FOLLOWS:

Oil by the numbers
While waiting and hoping for an end to the spill, let’s address our insatiable demand
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 3, 2010, 8:17PM

Share Del.icio.usDiggTwitterYahoo! BuzzFacebookStumbleUponEmail Close [X]

The oil spill has left the central Gulf of Mexico awash in goo and the nervously watching American public buried in a blizzard of numbers: 20,000 barrels per day gushing into Gulf waters; 20,000 workers striving around the clock to plug the spill; nearly 1,400 vessels mobilized for the effort; millions of feet of boom to corral the oil; a million or so gallons of dispersant to break it up. And much more of everything in prospect as the effort continues to plug the runaway well and stop the mess from widening.

We'll offer one number that hasn't received the attention it deserves: 20 million. That's roughly the number of barrels of oil consumed each day by this country's cars, trucks, heavy equipment — everything.

It's a big number. To put things in perspective, if the BP spill is flowing at 20,000 barrels per day, that makes for an environmental catastrophe, but it amounts to a statistical rounding error when compared with daily U.S. oil consumption. It's roughly one-tenth of 1 percent of what we use daily.

We bring this up to call attention to the obvious: If this country is serious about reducing our oil dependency and, by inference, the amount of drilling at great depths offshore, we'll have to make some major inroads on the demand side. Short of that, shutting down drilling and production for any length of time in the Gulf of Mexico is a nonstarter. Gulf production provides us with 30 percent of the oil we produce domestically. Take it away without cutting consumption and you get only one thing: increased dependency on foreign oil, much of it controlled by countries that don't like us.

The Gulf spill has turned into a vexation for the Obama administration, framed curtly by the president's frustration-filled plea to White House aides to “plug the damn hole.”

We share Obama's pain. But that plug may not come for a while yet. Let's make the best use of the interim, Mr. President: Put it to use marshaling public opinion in the cause of cutting the nation's demand.

Here's another number that might help: 700 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That's a rough estimate of how much natural gas this country has, mostly trapped in shale formations from Texas to Colorado and in the West Virginia-Pennsylvania-New York region. It's accessible without drilling through deep waters and the product is twice as clean as coal.

Maybe now is the time, Mr. President, to have a look at the energy independence plan put forward by the wildcatter T. Boone Pickens — especially his proposal to convert our nation's fleet of 8 million 18-wheeler trucks from imported diesel to domestically produced natural gas.

That would take time, and it wouldn't be cheap. A new infrastructure would have to be put in place. But it would make better use of a fuel that this country has in abundance, and which is more accessible than deepwater oil.

Focusing on future options (including nuclear power) beats the alternative of simply wringing your hands and wagging fingers at the oil companies, Mr. President. There'll be time enough for blaming after the Deepwater Horizon well is plugged and the Gulf's cleanup is under way.

Now is the time to point the way forward with cleaner alternatives that help build that bridge to a sustainable energy future we all want.

We believe the American people are primed for a mission that makes us more secure and creates good jobs while cleaning up the environment. It's your moment to lead, Mr. President. Take full advantage of it.





The second article you should read is from the Edmonton (Canada) Journal. GaryLamphier writes:

"If the worst oil spill in U.S. history isn't enough to make natural gasAmerica's new fuel of choice, I suspect nothing will."

"It's cheap, it's cleaner burning than coal or oil, and with the recentdevelopment of massive new U.S. shale gas reserves, America is literallydrowning in the stuff."

And he finishes by quoting a Credit Suisse analyst:

"Natural gas...offers a cleaner, lower-risk solution to bridge the gap to abroader alternative energy platform."

Click here to read the full editorial (http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Gary+Lamphier+Gulf+spill+chilli...). AS FOLLOWS:

Gulf spill a chilling ad for natural gas

If we need fossil fuels, let's burn the cleanest one

By Gary Lamphier, Edmonton Journal June 5, 2010 Comments (4)
StoryPhotos ( 1 )

A brown pelican coated in heavy floats in the water June 4, 2010 near East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident is coming ashore in large volumes across southern Louisiana coastal areas.Photograph by: Win McNamee, Getty ImagesEDMONTON - If the worst oil spill in U.S. history isn't enough to make natural gas America's new fuel of choice, I suspect nothing will.

For years, Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, among others, has argued that natural gas offers the best solution -- economically and environmentally -- for meeting America's energy needs.

It's cheap, it's cleaner burning than coal or oil, and with the recent development of massive new U.S. shale gas reserves, America is literally drowning in the stuff.

Now, with gooey oil slicks and tar balls threatening to devastate beaches, fisheries and marshlands from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, BP has just given the natural gas industry the kind of big-time promo money can't buy.

Even before the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up and sank on April 20, killing 11 crew members and leaving inky crude gushing from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, the case for greater use of natural gas was a no-brainer.

By using more compressed natural-gas fuel at the pumps, and by gradually switching America's 650 coal-fired electric power plants over to natural gas, Washington could in one decisive step address an array of vexing policy issues.

It could limit foreign-oil imports (notably from unfriendly states in the Middle East); shrink its massive trade deficit -- now running at nearly $470 billion US on an annualized basis; reduce the need for more of the risky, deepsea drilling ventures that set the stage for the BP oil disaster; and create jobs for at least some of the 15 million Americans who are still out of work.

The downside? Gas prices fluctuate, just like oil prices. But the abundance of new shale gas supplies would seem to mitigate against a repeat of the rapid spikes we've seen in recent years.

The eco crowd isn't keen on natural gas either. Why? Because it's a fossil fuel. That makes it evil.

The greenies believe the world must transition to renewables now, without delay. I think that's pure fantasy. Not only would it be ludicrously expensive, it would create a whole new level of instability within an already unstable global economy.

Which brings us back to natural gas. It's a real-world solution that can be implemented now. It's not perfect. But then, nothing is.

"Natural gas is not a permanent or complete solution to imported oil. It is a bridge fuel to slash our oil dependence while buying us time to develop new technologies that will ultimately replace fossil transportation fuels," argued Pickens in the so-called "Pickens Plan" he developed a couple of years ago.

"Natural gas is the critical puzzle piece that will help us to keep more of the $350 to $450 billion we spend on imported oil every year at home, where it can power our economy and pay for our investments in wind energy, a smart grid and energy efficiency," he said.

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

If anything, those words ring truer now than they did two years ago. Despite all the media hype around renewables such as solar and wind, they still generate only a tiny fraction of the world's electrical power. The same goes for electric vehicles, which remain largely at the neophyte stage.

Like it or not, it's clearer than ever that the world will depend on fossil fuels to power its vehicles, power plants and industrial infrastructure for at least a generation to come. Given that, it makes more sense to encourage a switch to the cleanest-burning, most plentiful fossil fuel while we're waiting for nirvana to arrive.

Will it happen? I haven't the foggiest idea.

But some Wall Street analysts are using the BP disaster, and the resulting curbs on new offshore drilling in the U.S., to reinforce the argument for natural gas.

"Since the spill, investor attention has turned to the (approximately) 60 per cent of remaining U.S. oil production -- or 5.4 million barrels per day -- that lies onshore as new regulatory risks and uncertainty plague offshore (drilling programs)," note Credit Suisse analysts Jonathan Wolff and Anish Patel, in a report this week.

"The moratorium and resulting project delays will indeed tighten forward supply balances, thereby inflating (future year) oil pricing and benefiting onshore oil-weight exploration and production companies," they say.

"But what about those seemingly forgotten domestic gas shale producers? As the U.S. looks to reduce its dependence on foreign oil while easing the burden on the inherently higher risk deepwater Gulf of Mexico, domestic shale gas should emerge as a key solution to bolster energy security. Natural gas also offers a cleaner, lower-risk solution to bridge the gap to a broader alternative energy platform."

T. Boone Pickens couldn't have said it better himself.


Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Gary+Lamphier+Gulf+spill+chilli...


-- Boone