Pickens pushes alternative-energy legislation

By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Published: 1/13/2010 5:56 PM
Last Modified: 1/13/2010 5:56 PM

Congressional leaders should be ready to move soon on legislation that encourages greater use of compressed natural gas in the nation’s heavy-duty fleet vehicles, T. Boone Pickens predicted Wednesday.
Pickens and Center for American Progress Action Fund CEO John Podesta, former chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, updated reporters in a conference call focused on the “Pickens Plan” and the progress of bipartisan natural gas bills that are bottled up in U.S. Senate and House committees. The plan stresses the need for alternatives — such as natural gas, wind and nuclear power — to imported oil as a matter of national security.

Both men hope the bills, introduced last year, will get a full hearing once the health care debate ends. Both pieces of energy legislation, if passed, would offer incentives for automakers to make CNG vehicles for consumers.

“There’s a lot on America’s plate,” Pickens said. “We believe this is the No. 1. post-health care issue.”

The Pickens Plan also will roll out its latest television advertisement on cable stations beginning Thursday. The spot draws a connection between oil-rich nations fomenting anti-U.S. hatred and using natural gas to lessen that dependence.

The plan proposes converting millions of fleet trucks to cleaner-burning and domestically produced natural gas within seven years.

The U.S. imported more than 4.3 billion barrels of oil last year, much of it from hostile nations, Pickens noted. The cost averaged about $1 billion per day, according to reports.

“It’s insane for us to do that,” he said.

“At least half of that money can be retained right here in the U.S.”
The continental U.S. holds more than 100 years’ worth of natural gas reserves, he said, and the fuel already is high-octane and does not need refineries. It’s also about $1 cheaper per gallon equivalent than diesel fuel, he said.

A report released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress Action Fund indicates that 20 percent of the oil imported by the U.S. comes from countries listed as dangerous or unstable by the State Department, Podesta noted. Also, the list does not include Venezuela, a major oil exporter that has seized assets of some U.S. energy companies such as Tulsa-based Williams Cos. Inc.

“It requires immediate attention,” Podesta said of the security risk posed by oil-rich nations.

Pickens, a native Oklahoman, made his fortune in the oil fields but joined Tulsa oilman George Kaiser and others in looking for alternatives in recent years.

U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., is a co-sponsor of House Bill 1835 — otherwise known as the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act, or NAT GAS. The bill has 87 co-sponsors, including Oklahoma’s other four House members.


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