Pickens discusses the lastest OPEC move

I want to include another post on my blog today from the Pickens Plan. Boone Pickens has a real and viable plan for our country as well as 80 years of wisdom to back up his words. While you may not like him and may think that he is in this for the money, which he is, but you can't detract from his perseverance and tenacity. I believe Mr. Pickens sincerely wants to see our nation get better, by becoming oil free now.

From the PickensPlan website:

Hey, Army! Get this!

If we ever needed a lesson in why we need to cut down on our dependence on foreign oil our “friends” over at OPEC gave it to us today. They have announced they are going to cut oil production by some 2.2 million barrels per day.

They are doing that so that the price will rise from where it is now, about $45 per barrel, to about $75 per barrel.

This is in line with what I predicted would happen last week. OPEC’s decision will likely lead to an increase in oil and gasoline prices in America and proves the point that we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. This is further evidence that OPEC’s interests are not aligned with ours.

You can’t fault them for trying to maximize the value of a commodity they have, but you have to fault us as a nation if we don’t move fast in the next Administration to significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and the threat it poses to our national security and economy.

We have the domestic resources in wind, solar and natural gas to get the job done on energy and transportation, so let’s use them.”

This business of getting together to set prices is illegal in the United States but we don’t have jurisdiction over other sovereign nations. What we DO have is control over is how much foreign oil we use.

We need to take today’s statement by OPEC and use that as our rallying point to show the current leaders in Washington and - more important, the new Administration and Congress - that the Pickens Plan is the only plan which will reduce foreign oil by up to 50 percent over the next ten years.

The Congress needs to move immediately to give trucking companies and fleet owners incentives to replace gasoline and diesel fueled vehicles with natural gas.

We need to provide a long-term production tax credit (PTC) to build out wind farms in the Great Plains and solar farms in the Southwest. We need to be aggressive about retro-fitting homes and buildings with additional insulation and employ other energy-saving strategies.

We can’t allow OPEC - Saudi Arabia and Iran, Venezuela and Lybia and the others - to artificially determine what we will pay for oil. If we reduce our need for foreign oil, we can dictate terms to them, not the other way around.

The Pickens Plan is the answer. The time is now.

– Boone

Pickens Plan teams up with Owens Corning

I copied this from the Pickens Plan web blog since I felt it was a great example of someone trying to live oil free. What is ironic is knowing that Pickens made his fortune in oil. At least now he is exerting all his considerable will and resources into promoting alternate energy and alternate fuel for transportation. Check out his website here.

Boone and the Pink Panther

The Pickens Plan is moving ahead. Last week we teamed up with the American Lung Association.

This week we got a great partner when the Owen Corning company came on board.

We hitched up the T. Boone Express and took a ride to Toledo, Ohio where they are headquartered.

You know Owens Corning; they’re the guys who do insulation and have the Pink Panther as their mascot.

We were both pretty happy about the deal!

Owens Corning is helping us expand the Pickens Plan from our focus on energy production into the area of energy conservation. According to the CEO of Owens Corning, Mike Thaman, adding insulation to existing homes and buildings can save millions of dollars a year in imported oil - especially in the Northeast - and in natural gas in homes heated by gas or electricity.

Either way, that translates into less foreign oil and I’m for less foreign oil.
Mike Thaman invited me to do a town hall with the staff at the Toledo headquarters. But listen to this: They hooked up the video deal to 78 U.S. locations, five in Europe and two in Asia.

This is what the scene looked like from the control booth.

The important thing is that with the American Lung Association and Owens Corning this deal is gathering steam.

Barack Obama announced his energy and environmental team yesterday. Dr. Seven Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in physics, will be Energy Secretary. Carole Browner will be the person in the White House who oversees energy and the environment which tells me that Dr. Chu will run the labs but the policy will come out of the White House.

That’s a good thing for us. You remember I met with Carole Browner a week or so ago when she was heading up the Energy Transition Team.

A good day for the Pickens Plan, army. We’re marching forward!

– Boone

OEM CNG vehicles

Did you know that major auto manufacturer's make vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG)? I have previously written about the Pickens Plan on this blog and how their goal is to convert most of the US fleet to CNG. Today, CNG is abundant and relatively inexpensive in the United States (less than 1 dollar per gallon in Utah), which is in sharp opposition to crude oil and gasoline that we need to import. Furthermore, burning CNG in an internal combustion engine is drastically cleaner than burning gasoline. It is so much cleaner that California will give you HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) status for driving a CNG vehicle.

Here are some examples of CNG burning automobiles:

-- The Honda Cixic GX:
-- The Chevy Cavalier CNG bi-fuel vehicle
-- The Chevy Suburban/Silverado 2500 vehicles
-- The Ford Contour CNG bi-fuel
-- The Ford 150 truck
-- the Ford Excursion

You can see these for sale at various websites which I will list below. These vehicles are made by the auto manufacturers and then sold to fleets but not to you and I. The only exception is the Honda Civic GX, which is a great car. My question is, "Why can't I walk into my local Chevy dealer and buy a new Chevy Cavalier CNG bi-fuel vehicle?" I can buy one used after the fleet is finished with it, but not when the car is new.

If we had more of these vehicles for sale and more stations that sold CNG at the pump, we could march ever onwards towards living oil free.

CNG Cars for Sale
Morris Auto Sales
US Government Fleet Auctions

The Pickens Plan

One of my goals for this blog is to consider the means by which the citizens of these United States can kick their addiction to foreign oil. Well, in case you have not heard, there is a southern gentleman by the name of T. Boone Pickens who has a plan.

Pickens is a self made billionaire who made his fortune in oil, of all things, but now is on a crusade to free us from it's bondage. T. Boone has a well thought out plan and is spending a great deal of his own wealth in proving its merits and promoting it nationwide. He has aired commercials, been on talk shows and even been featured on 60 Minutes as he campaigns for his cause.

Here are some of his plan's highlights:

- 700 billion dollars a year leaves the US to pay for foreign oil.
- The US has an abundance of natural gas that could be used to power our automobiles. (only one production vehicle is available today, the Honda Civic GX).
- The middle of our nation is a "natural" wind corridor that would be perfect for windmill generated power.
- Solar power needs to be expanded in in the Southwest.

I couldn't agree more. This man is an inspiration for us all and obviously willing to put his money where his mouth is. Have a look at his website and then sign on if you agree!

http://www.pickensplan.com/