Anything American—as long as it's American

Folks Mr. Pickens talks diversity - as long as it's American - this "win-win" talk underscores our focus on getting off of foreign oil by all working together....with all the tools we're getting through the Department of Energy we should really make a difference in 2011! rc3

From the desk of T. Boone Pickens

Army:

I hope you watched President Obama give the State of the Union Address last night. I went on CNBC's Squawk Box and then MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning to give some of my thoughts on the energy section of the speech, and I'd like to share them with you now. I hope the attention he gave to America's energy crisis will help kick-start bipartisan action.

I agree with the President's goal of moving toward battery-powered vehicles and other technologies but we need to get more options into the mix. The reality is that today a battery has limitations-it won't move an 18-wheeler, for example. So on a barrel-for-barrel replacement for foreign oil and diesel, only natural gas can can step in now and have an immediate impact starting today, not years down the road. The value of using our abundant natural gas as an alternative to foreign oil is simple-if we had all 8 million 18-wheelers on natural gas, we would cut OPEC imports in half. These natural gas trucks would be 30 percent cleaner, and fuel would be a dollar per gallon cheaper-it's that simple.

I noted that Abu Dhabi recently announced that they are moving toward natural gas as a transportation fuel. Why are they doing that? It's a smart business decision for them: natural gas is cheaper. They can use cheaper natural gas in their vehicles and sell the expensive oil to the United States.

We need immediate action. One way President Obama can get things moving is to issue an executive order requiring all federal vehicles purchased in the future to run on American resources-natural gas, ethanol, electricity, or other domestic options. Anything American-as long as it's American.

I'm excited about what I heard and optimistic about the future. I think we're headed down the right track by recognizing that we need to get on our resources to solve our energy crisis-that means using everything, including renewables like solar and wind, along with nuclear, natural gas and other American resources.

But we need to quit buying oil from the enemy starting today. I appreciate what Joe Scarborough said to me this morning: "I will tell you this right now though. I would like that $2 billion a week to invest in what you're talking about, Boone, and that is transforming our economy and breaking our dependence on foreign oil from OPEC."

I know we get get this done by working together.

Boone

PS I hope you'll watch me on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tomorrow [Thursday, January 27, 2011] night-as you know, I've been on before and it's always a great experience.