When we started this campaign, oil prices were at an all time high. The Pickens Plan was meant to be a comprehensive energy plan for how to use our country’s resources and technology to reduce our staggering dependence on OPEC oil. As I’ve said before: I’m for everything American, and there was a lot of focus particularly on my interest in renewable energy — wind and solar — to generate electricity, and in natural gas to fuel trucks, buses and fleets.
Together, we made important progress on wind power — Congress included in last year’s stimulus bill incentives to help develop more renewable energy and get it online. While my wind farm in Pampa has had delays, I am engaged in wind development initiatives in the US and Canada, and many others have answered the call and started erecting their own turbines. Thanks to what we did as part of the Pickens Plan, there are wind farms already in development from Texas all the way up to North Dakota.
Wind is a big part of America’s future, as are all American energy sources, but it can’t reduce our dependence on OPEC oil — to do that you have to address our imported oil use in transportation. That is why I have been urging Congress and the President to enact policies to help get trucks, buses and fleets running on clean, abundant and domestic fuels, such as natural gas.
We need to start using our abundant natural gas resources to reduce our ever-escalating dependence on OPEC oil and the threat it poses to our national security and economy. With oil again nearing $100 a barrel, the need has never been greater and the opportunity never larger.
-Boone