Pickens stuns with attack on oil ‘addiction’
Pickens stuns with attack on oil ‘addiction’
Boston Herald.com
By Christine McConville
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
He’s a billionaire Texas oilman with an urgent message.
T. Boone Pickens, 80, has been showing up all over television in recent weeks, talking about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
With pie charts and a charming drawl, Pickens lays it out this way: “America is in a hole and it’s getting deeper every day. We import 70 percent of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
“I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of,” he continues. “If we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil.”
Pickens wants the country to start making strides in wind power, nuclear energy and ethanol. In fact, Pickens is trying to build what could be the world’s largest wind farm. If his $10 billion venture succeeds, it will add 4,000 megawatts of wind-generated power to the grid in Texas.
Pickens has been calling on Americans to be part of the transition to self reliance.
“On January 20, 2009, a new president gets sworn in,” he says on his Web site. “If we’re organized, we can convince Congress to make major changes towards cleaner, cheaper and domestic energy resources.”
Oil baron: T. Boone Pickens says ‘America is in a hole and it’s getting deeper every day. We import 70 percent of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.’