T. Boone Pickens has been doing media interviews all day in St. Paul. On MSNBC, Nora O’Donnell asked him about the Republican pick for Vice President, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and whether Boone knew about her energy policy. He said she knows a lot about energy because of the importance of oil to the Alaskan economy.
He then reminded Nora that he is not opposed to additional drilling, but that it cannot be the answer to our long-term energy needs. He said (as those of us in the Army are well aware) that we need a strategy to bridge the gap between using oil for cars, trucks and buses today; and new technology fuels tomorrow.
Gov. Palin will accept the nomination for VP tonight and we expect that the energy issue will be at least some part of her speech. Other speakers who may well look at energy are Michael Williams of the Railroad Commission of Texas, which–in spite of its name–oversees, according to its website, “the Texas oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and the surface mining of coal.”