Boone spoke to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce luncheon honoring the 25th anniversary of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (“The T”). In 1988 The T board committed to moving to compressed natural gas (CNG) to power its fleet of in-town buses. Today nearly every vehicle – including utility vehicles – run on CNG.

The T sent a CNG bus to Dallas for Boone to take Boone and reporters to the event.

After the speech Boone spoke with Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Mitchell Schnurman about the current state of alternative energy.  Schnurman wrote an article titled, “Despite Obstacles, Pickens is not Giving up on Wind Energy.”

Here are some excerpts:

In spite of falling oil prices and a sagging economy,

Pickens is not backing off plans to build a giant wind farm in West Texas, although the project is being delayed at least a year. Pickens can’t get financing, not with credit markets so tight, and he says government has to step up to keep the momentum moving on alternative fuels.

“They’re going to have to lead, there’s no question about that,” Pickens said.

To end our dependence on foreign oil, he proposes that compressed natural gas be widely used as a transportation fuel and that wind power and other alternatives become major sources for electricity.

Schnurman noted that Boone has not backed away from, just delayed his plans to build a windfarm in Pampa, Texas

He unveiled a plan for a $12 billion wind farm about an hour from Amarillo. About six months ago, he ordered 687 wind turbines from General Electric at a cost of about $2 billion, and he expects delivery in 2010.

Last week, President-elect Barack Obama appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes and was asked whether energy – in the face dropping prices – is more or less important.

“It’s more important,” Obama said. “This has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down, and suddenly we act like it’s not important, and we start, you know, filling up our SUVs again.

“And as a consequence, we never make any progress,” Obama said. “It’s part of the addiction. all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.”

To read the entire article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, click HERE.