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Oil baron T. Boone Pickens pitches energy plan

Posted: Oct 22, 2008 06:38 PM CDT

Updated: Oct 22, 2008 08:18 PM CDT

Oil Baron T. Boone Pickens pitches energy plan












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by Jeff Ferrell

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Oil prices will rise again, warned oil and gas baron T. Boone Pickens. He made a stop in Shreveport Wednesday morning for a town hall meeting to unveil his energy plan to local residents.

That plan calls on using natural gas, lots of it, instead of foreign oil. It's a perfect fit locally considering the Haynesville Shale. Twelve hundred people packed inside part of the Shreveport Convention Center to hear Pickens' pitch.

The Pickens' plan: Cut oil imports from 70-percent of our daily supply in half by using natural gas for transportation. Pickens told the audience, "we got plenty of natural gas, it's cleaner, it's cheaper, abundant and it's ours."

With northwest Louisiana sitting atop potentially trillions of dollars of natural gas trapped inside rock known as shale, two miles below the surface, there was no shortage of support locally for at least the rough outlines of Pickens' plan. It calls on using natural gas as a temporary bridge from foreign oil to better fuel cell technology in the future.

But even some supporters have concerns, like Sheveport mother Molly McInnis, whole explained, "I'm worried that neither candidate has signed-up for his plan."

After the hour-long presentation and Q&A, we caught up with Mr. Pickens' and asked him directly about which presidential candidate might adopt his plan. Pickens told me, "they both use some of the stuff that I gave them when I was in meetings with them. And neither one of them have adopted the plan."

Pickens also said he won't endorse either candidate. "I can't sell this as a non-partisan issue and support one of them so I'm a lone ranger."