Earlier this week, T. Boone Pickens traveled to Southwestern Louisiana to meet with the editorial board of The Advertiser. Thanks to the considerable oil and gas reserves found in and around the Lafayette region, The Advertiser serves a readership that is well versed in the energy industry, which the founder of the Pickens Plan immediately identified with:
“The country has so much natural gas that it’s a shame that we don’t replace everything we can, because it’s cleaner for one, but it’s cheaper, it’s abundant, and it’s ours. That’s pretty hard to beat,” Pickens told the newspaper’s editors.
Pickens shared the details of his plan to back away from importing OPEC oil, mainly by replacing old 18-wheelers with 18-wheelers that run on natural gas. That would reduce the need for imported oil by 3 million barrels a day, 75 percent of the 4.5 million OPEC barrels imported every day, Pickens said.
“You’re just being stupid to continue to import oil from the enemy, because some part of the oil you’re paying for oil coming from the Persian Gulf goes into the Taliban. Cut that off,” Pickens said.
Lafayette Consolidated Government and the city’s bus fleet have begun transitioning to compressed natural gas vehicles. Plans are already in the works to replace some of the Lafayette Parish School System buses with compressed natural gas buses.
Joining Pickens at The Advertiser was Rep. Charles Boustany. The two discussed the opportunities afforded by Louisiana’s abundance of natural gas as well as domestic energy policy. They also visited a compressed natural gas station.
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