T. Boone Pickens was the guest on WNYC radio’s Brian Lehrer show. In a recap, the WNYC.org website quoted Boone on the introduction of the NAT GAS Act:
We got the bill entered on April 6th, and we have 178 co-sponsors. It’s House Bill 1380, and it was entered by Republicans [Rep. Kevin] Brady, a Republican, [Rep. John] Sullivan, and Democrats [Rep. Dan] Boren and [Rep. John] Larson. It’s gotten great interest and I’m confident the bill will pass, because it’s the first step to get us off of just exactly what the president said he was going to do, get off of oil from the Middle East.
WNYC explained the scope of the NAT GAS Act:
The natural gas bill calls for a billion dollars a year in tax incentives for five years for natural gas development, which Pickens explained was a subsidy to offset the costs of switching over heavy-duty trucks from diesel to natural gas. The incentive, a tax credit, would sunset after five years.
When people ask why not go straight battery power for 18-wheelers? Pickens explained:
A battery will not move an eighteen-wheeler. But that energy is good, from the wind, and I’m in for wind projects now. So I didn’t abandon it… Wind is going to be a factor at some point, but it won’t replace transportation fuel.
Are we in danger of running out of natural gas? Not according to Boone:
You have four-thousand-trillion cubic feet of natural gas in America and that’s equivalent, barrels of oil equivalent, to twice what the Saudi’s have in oil. So that’s a hundred year supply, and maybe a two-hundred year supply. And I don’t see this as a final fuel… it’ll be a bridge fuel to somewhere and where do you go?
Probably, I’m more of a person that believes you’ll end up with a battery, is what it’ll be. It’ll be a small battery and the technology will advance dramatically from where we are right now.
To read the entire summary of Boone’s interview, click HERE.
— The Pickens Team