Utah has taken the lead nationwide using natural gas as a transportation fuel. Tell me why.
I can sum it up in four words: 87 cents a gallon. That’s what we pay for natural gas at the pump.

That’s a pretty effective argument for switching to domestically produced natural gas.
Keep in mind that price is just one of several compelling reasons to use natural gas in vehicles.

Lay it out for us.
There are three things that are important to me, and I think they will be critically important for whoever is elected president, too. One is affordability. Let’s get serious about affordability of energy prices longer term. Using natural gas as transportation fuel is a huge step in that direction.

Two is independence, which we can achieve as a country. How irritated do you become when we lose 700 billion bucks a year to dictators, despots, and tyrants who basically don’t like our country and fund anti-American activities from the money that they get from the dollars that just are lost overseas? Those dollars should stay at home.

And three is overall sustainability, things like air quality, maintaining our way of life and our ability to continue the greatest manufacturing giant the world has ever known. Feeding the greatest economy the world has ever known in ways that are predictable and in our national security interest.

Do you practice what you preach?
I sure do. I drive a natural gas car. Four years ago I never thought I’d be driving a natural gas car. But gas prices are high. We have air quality problems in our large metropolitan areas. And we’ve got some great entrepreneurs in this state. I ran across some of those entrepreneurs, and they said, “We can convert that Suburban of yours, and you can run this car on natural gas.”

And I looked into it a little bit and I thought, “How cool would that be to pay then 67 cents a gallon for natural gas? That would be pretty great.” There are other reasons that I’ve already mentioned. You look at the air quality that you are able to contribute to. And supporting local entrepreneurs. So I paid out of my own pocket to make the conversion.

Have you caught any flak?
I’ve had some people come up to me and say, “Gee, Governor, you can afford to do that because you can just write out a check.” And I say, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Have you looked at our state incentive? Have you looked at the federal incentive? Have you then taken the remainder that that doesn’t cover of the conversion cost and compared it to gas prices today and seen how long it would take to pay for it?”

Pretty compelling points.
I’m a big believer in natural gas. I’m here to say that whatever happens to this country – and we’ve got a lot that needs to happen in a few short months because whoever is elected president must buy into a change on the energy side. We simply cannot afford to keep doing things the way we have for so long. Oil has been so cheap and so readily available that nobody has done a thing about it. Every single president right on back to Richard Nixon has promised that we’re going to do something about it. And no has delivered. And they haven’t because it’s been so darn cheap. Why do anything about it? There’s no need.

How is the Pickens Plan going over in Utah?
Everyone is tuned in to the Pickens Plan. If my kids can repeat what the Pickens Plan is, then everyone in this country can repeat what the Pickens Plan is. It’s so taken off because of the personal dollars, tens of millions of dollars that Boone has invested in this desire of his to go out and get the country talking about energy economics and the force of his personality that something really good is going to come from this Pickens Plan. It is going to turn the whole conversation around in this country because of one man. There is going to be change, and I am absolutely convinced that change is going to come from what T. Boone Pickens is talking about. Here you have a man who could be doing anything. But he’s here with us. Not only here with us but every day he’s out talking – last night on Jay Leno for heaven’s sake – talking about a plan, a plan that is totally consistent with what we need as a country.

CONDENSED AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE FROM GOVERNOR HUNTSMAN’S REMARKS AT THE SALT LAKE CITY PICKENS PLAN TOWN HALL MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2008