T. Boone Pickens kicked off two days of media and meetings in New York and Washington to celebrate the first anniversary of the Pickens Plan which was announced last July 8.

Boone was the CNBC set beginning at seven o’clock Eastern time with Becki Quick, Joe Kernan, and Carl Quintanilla. He pointed out that new research has indicated America’s natural gas reserves would provide more energy than all the oil in Saudi Arabia.

“A window has opened,” he said about America’s huge reserves of natural gas, “and we need to move now to get off foreign oil.”

Boone said that H.R. 1835 – the NAT GAS Act – has been introduced in the U.S. House and that a companion bill was scheduled to be introduced in the U.S. Senate tomorrow by New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.

When Boone was asked if he favored cap-and-trade legislation he said, “I’m for something bigger than cap-and-trade. I’m for saving America.”

To watch the entire CNBC interview, click HERE.

While Boone was on-set at CNBC the Dallas Morning News published an editorial pointing out that,

AT&T, the Dallas-based communications giant recently promised to spend $565 million over the next decade to buy 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles. At least $350 million of the investment, believed to be the largest of its kind by a U.S. company, will go toward purchasing 8,000 compressed natural gas vehicles.

The editorial gave credit to Boone Pickens.

A year ago, Pickens introduced a broad energy plan that, among other things, would convert trucks and company fleets that burn diesel and gas into vehicles running on compressed natural gas.

His advocacy has been bipartisan and broad: He has buttonholed mayors, business executives and lawmakers in his crusade to change the way Americans produce and use energy.

The Dallas Morning News editorial makes the point that tax incentives must be passed by Congress but

Pickens deserves a big share of the credit for the progress so far. His relentless advocacy for this issue is part of the reason the nation is thinking about energy in new ways.

To read the entire editorial, click HERE.

— The Pickens Team