Coverage of Monday’s “Clean Energy Summit 2.0” from Las Vegas focused on the power of the New Energy Army and your support of the Pickens Plan.

When the Pickens Plan got started, natural gas was considered a minor resource which was being quickly depleted. Because of Boone Pickens’ total commitment to the Pickens Plan and with the support of more than 1.6 million members of the Army natural gas is now the de facto bridge fuel.

In a memo jointly released by the Center for American Progress and the Energy Future Coalition titled, Natural Gas: A Bridge Fuel for the 21st Century highlights many of the points the Pickens Plan makes:

– Natural gas the principal fuel for heavy trucks

-Natural gas as a significant fuel for power production

– Natural gas as a fuel for municipal and school bus fleets

The memo points out that “Natural gas is ‘by the far the cleanest burning’ fossil fuel, and produces slightly more than one-fifth of all U.S. energy.”

The memo goes on to state:

Oil and coal combined comprise about two thirds of all energy consumption. Their combustion produces substantially more global warming and other conventional pollution than natural gas. Combusting natural gas to make electricity produces about half of the global warming pollution of coal, and one-third of petroleum burned in cars. Given its domestic abundance and its lower pollutant levels, natural gas should play a larger role in our energy mix.

One of the principal sponsors of the Las Vegas event was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) who, according to the Wall Street Journal,

“opened his remarks by saying, ‘I’ve been converted. I now belong to the Pickens church,’ in reference to the plan pitched by Oklahoma oilman T. Boone Pickens to ramp up the role of natural gas (and wind power) in U.S. electricity generation.”

The WSJ also blogged that

“Energy Secretary Steven Chu continued the natural-gas lovefest, calling the Pickens plan a possible ‘transition’ to a future filled with electric cars and biofuel-powered vehicles. Secretary Chu said that the double-whammy of electric cars and better biofuels could eventually ‘offload our total dependence on foreign oil.’

In addition to Boone Pickens, and former VP Al Gore, the sold-out audience of over 900 at the Clean Energy Summit were addressed by former President Bill Clinton to told them that clean energy produced more jobs.

According to the reporting by Jennifer Robison in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

“Every $1 billion invested in a coal-fired power plant creates about 800 jobs. Investing $1 billion in a solar thermal plant generates 1,900 jobs. Wind energy performs better yet, with $1 billion yielding 3,300 jobs. And building retrofits for energy efficiency? They create 6,000 positions for every $1 billion invested,” Clinton said.

In an op-ed piece published in conjunction with the Clean Energy Summit, Sen. Reid called for the adoption of the NAT GAS Act which is currently before the House and the Senate. Sen. Reid is an original co-sponsor of the Senate bill.

— The Pickens Team