T. Boone conducted two days of conference calls with Pickens Plan District Leaders. More than 100 people participated as Boone responded to a wide range of questions. Here is a summary of the conversations:
OPENING REMARKS:
We started this process ten months ago … Ten months? It doesn’t seem possible! We’ve had a number of high profile events – the Energy Summit last month started with John Podesta (president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) and me. We added Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Energy Secretary Chu and Interior Secretary Salazar. It s a real interesting group of people.
AT&T came on board about a week ago when they announced they would be replacing about 8,100 vehicles now running on petroleum-based fuels to run on domestic natural gas. The chassis will be built by Ford, but because Ford doesn’t have a platform for NG vehicles, outside vendors have to do the up-fitting. You’d think some of our automakers would get on board, but maybe AT&T will be the trigger.
We’ve got good momentum, we’re making headway in the Congress and we’re only about one step away from the White House.
The Virtual March coming up on April 1-3 and the goal is demonstrate to the House and Senate that we need to pass energy legislation. We want 1 million actions during the virtual march. Here’s an important point: We need to keep ahead of the health care debate. If health care gets on the agenda before we finish with an energy bill, it will push us back a whole year.
I want to thank our partners: American Electric Power, the American Wind Energy Association, Owings-Corning and AutoNation, We’re working hard to sign up others.
Some action items for the march:
– Need groups in your local areas to partner with us and have their employees participate.
– Need to have Letters to the Editor in local papers because Members of Congress and Senator read those. Your letter should tell them we need an energy plan.
– Some simple items: Reach out directly to your Member of Congress to have a meeting. Ask if they’re part of the Plan, if they say no, ask if they have their own plan. If they say no; then tell them you believe they’re for foreign oil.
If you can’t get Member of Congress, try for a meeting with the staff. Every Congressman and Senator has at least one District or State office. Go to them because they’ll pass the information back up to their Washington office.– Report your activities back up to your regional Pickens Plan leader so I can keep track of what you’re doing and what they’re thinking.
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QUESTIONS:
Q: What is greatest achievement of the Pickens Plan?
The biggest deal is the Army. I have a lot more stroke in Washington with people than I ever did with money.
Since the July 8th kick off we have gone right down the line. We wanted wind, solar & transmission and we got a lot of that in the stimulus package. We have to use our only domestic resource – natural gas to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We have Al Gore on board on using natural gas for heavy-duty trucks. Going to batteries for light duty is fine with me.
All the buttons we’ve been pushing are still intact. None of the pillars of the Pickens Plan have had to be discarded. We should feel good about what we’ve done, but we’re not finished.
Q: What legislation is missing now?
Natural gas side of it is the only thing we’ve got now to reduce foreign oil. Hybrids are getting 40 mpg so that’s some progress on the light duty side. I’m focused on the issue of a 21st century transmission grid for the renewables; and the natural gas issue. We’re working hard every day on this.
Q: What is the national security component to the Pickens Plan?
We had our plan pretty well thought out last July. Even before the world economy collapsed, national security issue has been the number one issue. We are still importing more than 60 percent of our oil, of that, half comes out of the Middle East, Africa and Venezuela.
There is an article today about how hard the Chinese are working to lock up oil for future delivery. The Chinese are working that side of the street hard because they know that when the world economies begin to recover, oil is going to be scarce and when a commodity is in short supply the price goes up.
The Middle East is aware of what we’re doing here on energy independence, and one of our people thinks the Middle East is going to punish us for that. They’ll push the price up to $75 and leave it there to see what happens to the world economy. If the world economy recovers over the next two years, you can see oil right back up to $150.
We’re the number 4 producer of natural gas in the world for natural gas. We could be number three. That is the direction we need to be going.
If you need some evidence about the national security issue, Russia has just made a deal with Venezuela to use their air bases. Venezuela is number four in the list of countries we import oil from.
Russia making security deals with Venezuela should be a big flashing red light in terms of Russia having influence over how much oil we get, from whom, and at what price.
We have to get on our own resources.
Q: What can District Leaders do?
It’s real important to try to break through, have a dialogue, get responses. We need to know who our friends are – and who our opponents are.
No one wants to say they’re for foreign oil, so they won’t ever do that. If they aren’t for the Pickens Plan, what they do is double-talk their way through it.
After you’ve talked to these offices – Congress and Senate, we need you to tell us where these people stand and what they’re saying, so if they’re not for us, we can figure out how to get them turned around.
Q: What’s the single biggest obstacle still facing the Pickens Plan?
Doing nothing is still the biggest obstacle. Inaction by Congress is a danger. Ten percent of America is against any change. Others are afraid to make a decision.
We have to put and keep pressure on the people in Washington and make them pull the trigger.
Q: What happens to the Pickens Plan after the Virtual March and after legislation is written and adopted?
Oh, that’s an easy one: We’re going to stick together. It will be fair to look at what we’ve done and pat ourselves on the back, but after that we have to hang together.
We may have to keep the pressure on to make sure that what has been promised is actually being done. The New Energy Army is going to be America’s Energy Watchdog for a long time to come.
Q: What’s going to happen to the price of oil?
It’s going to go up. The global economic rescission was deeper than anyone thought it was going to be and it caught OPEC off guard. OPEC has made deep production cuts and it is policing production of its members.
The oil futures reflect this: The price for December 2009 oil is $54/bbl. December 2010 is $59; and, December 2011 is $64.
OPEC has set a target of $75 and I think we’ll see that by the end of this year. OPEC countries need the money and will continue to cut back until the price is up.
Chinese are going to slack off buying our debt and use that money to lock up their oil requirements for the future. We should have a call on Iraq’s oil at market prices – not a price break, but we should have first call on the growing oil production in Iraq.
Q: What is necessary to get the financial sector lending for alternative energy projects.
Getting the financial system up and running is the toughest problem facing DC. Natural gas doesn’t need any help except for an incentive to get 350,000 heavy trucks running on diesel to be replaced with trucks running on natural gas.
Nobody’s buying any trucks right now – diesel or anything else. We need to prime that pump with incentives.
On Wind, solar and the transmission grid, we need what we’re calling a “wind bank.” That would loan money to developers on wind with a rate low enough and length long enough to get it started.
Q: What type of trucks do you see as “heavy-duty?”
Trash trucks and municipal buses are the two best examples of heavy duty that will run on compressed natural gas because they run in a relatively small area and go back to the barn every night.
Over-the-road 18-wheelers should run on liquified natural gas. There are 6.5 million 18-wheelers in America. I want to replace 350,000 diesel trucks with LNG trucks by incenting them to do that. That will produce 450,000 jobs direction and 1.6 million jobs indirectly.
Lee Scott, the chairman of Wal-Mart is starting to go with us on natural gas. Wal-Mart and Peterbilt are joining up on a test of two CNG trucks and two LNG trucks to run between their distribution centers and their stores.
Q: Buildings use 40% of energy in the US. Where do they fall in the Pickens Plan?
Owens-Corning has been a long-time supporter. We can conserve energy by better insulation in homes and commercial buildings. That is going to be in the stimulus bill and/or energy bill. Green buildings will be very efficient in terms of energy savings.
Here’s one thing to report: There is a guy named Steve Bing who is a big west coast developer. He has a hanger over at the Burbank air port. He generates 115% of the energy he needs from solar panels. So, he sells 15% back to the grid.
Jay Leno is a big solar and wind guy. He drives a natural gas car. Leno is a very high profile guy and is a leader in these things.
More people like Bing and Leno are going to surface around the country and we’re all going to come together to solve America’s energy problems. This is coming from grass roots not from Washington.
Q: What about your personal motives?
That’s a fair question. It’s all about America. I’m 80 years old and I don’t need any more money. I’ve taken some big losses in the last year, but I’ve been generous before and I’ll be generous again. I’ve given away over $700 million.
This is the biggest deal I’ve ever been involved with and I have only one goal: A better America.
Q: Thank you for your time, Boone:
Thanks again to everybody for your hard work. Stick with me. We’re going to get the job done.
— The Pickens Team