“You better get your oar in the water”

Last summer Texas oil and gas tycoon T. Boone Pickens made a splash with the Pickens Plan, an ambitious agenda to end America’s oil addiction (the full plan is available at pickensplan.com). Since then, Pickens has juggled roles as energy investor, alternative energy evangelist and author—his book, The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America’s Energy Future, was published in September.

How do you feel that your plan has influenced the national agenda?

Well, we asked for a grid, and we got it, and the same when we asked for help on renewables, wind and solar. We got it in the stimulus package, so I’d say we had great influence there. Now as we go forward, we’ve had House Bill 1835 [which provides tax credits for the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel]. So I’d say up to this point we’ve been 100 percent.

The credit crisis has made it harder to finance alternative energy projects. What do you tell potential investors now?

I tell them to wait. Don’t rush the monkey, and we’ll see a better show. We’ll see what comes out of Congress. I think you’re going to have a wind bank or something similar where money will be loaned to developers for wind and solar…so you’re going to get all of that out of this Congress and you’re going to get it this year.

You’ve built a sort of grassroots army behind this plan. It’s a nonpartisan issue, but one that’s vitally important to all of us.… For the past 40 years, we’ve had no energy plan for America. Now we’re importing almost 70 percent of our oil every day. Is that smart?

No, that’s not smart.… If we go 10 more years buying oil from the same people we brought from in the past, this country will be flat on its back. So you want to address it now. You better get your oar in the water; you better start solving your problem and looking ahead to the next generation. We’re at the point that I’ve got millions of people listening to me on this subject. This will be a blueprint of how the grassroots in America can actually get action in Washington.

Your proposal discusses rebuilding the energy grid to transmit wind energy across the country. But transmission projects tend to get mired in political imbroglios.

You’ve got to have leadership, which has been missing. Compare it to natural gas pipelines. We’ve had over 10,000 miles of natural gas pipeline built in the last 10 years, and only 1,000 miles of power transmission. The difference is in the siting, in the way the right of way is given. Right now [power transmission] is done state by state, and trying to get states to cooperate is extremely hard to do. So it takes years to get a transmission line in place. With a pipeline, it goes right away to FERC [the Federal Electricity Regulatory Commission]. You’ve got to find some way to expedite the siting of transmission lines, and I think it’s probably going to fall on FERC.

Using clean natural gas to fuel transportation is a major part of your plan. How do we convince automakers to make more cars and trucks that run on CNG?

You’ve got five truck makers now, and that’s where I want to start. This can be accomplished pretty quick. And you want to go heavy duty because natural gas is the only fuel we have that’s going to help you on heavy duty. It’s actually the only fuel we have that can reduce the dependency on foreign oil.…You don’t have to have a refinery, it’s cleaner, it’s cheaper, it’s abundant, and it’s ours.

The price of oil has declined precipitously in recent months. Could this have an impact on your plan?

These price swings are not unusual. We’re still importing the same percentage of oil. The security issue doesn’t change. In fact, when oil is cheaper, you use more. That only increases the dependency.