The following op-ed by T. Boone Pickens appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Monday, July 8, 2013.

Five years ago today — July 8, 2008 — I launched the Pickens Plan — a campaign to bring the issue of energy out of the back corners of American society and into the living room and front porch of every home in the United States.

Our plan was launched with TV ads, social media, news programs and a busy schedule of personal speeches and lectures. Oil was selling for $140 a barrel and regular gasoline cost about $4.20 per gallon. George W. Bush was still in the White House, but the fall presidential campaign would be between U.S. Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

I started this project by telling a story about my dad: He said, “Son, a fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan. Your mother and I are concerned because you might be a fool with no plan.”

That was our situation when it came to an energy plan: There wasn’t one in spite of the fact that every president since Richard Nixon had promised “energy independence.” Two weeks ago, President Obama gave what some called an energy speech at Georgetown University. That’s far from the case. It wasn’t an energy plan, it was a carbon reduction plan — a war on coal.

My objective is to get us off OPEC oil.

People said that natural gas vehicles were a chicken-and-egg situation: With no fueling infrastructure people wouldn’t buy them, manufacturers wouldn’t make them, and no one would build fueling stations. That’s why the Pickens Plan focused not on America’s 250 million passenger vehicles and light trucks but on our 8 million heavy-duty trucks. With the amount of natural gas now available, it is a reachable goal to move over-the-road, refuse and recycling trucks and delivery and utility vans from imported diesel and gasoline to domestic natural gas.

Today, an 18-wheeler can go coast-to-coast and border-to-border along America’s “Natural Gas Highway” with liquefied natural gas refueling facilities all along the way in spite of the inaction of, and impediments thrown up by, the federal government. Further, domestic oil production is at a 22-year high while domestic natural gas production is at an all-time high. All of this despite the administration’s often open antagonism toward the industry.

In spite of the economic collapse, the oil and gas industry continues to provide thousands of direct jobs while producing ample fuel for the millions of Americans who depend on a boiler, a furnace, a truck or anything else that runs on oil or natural gas for them to be able to keep their jobs. If you want to blame the oil and gas industry for anything, blame it for creating too many jobs.

Sadly, China is the country that comes closest to adopting key aspects of the Pickens Plan. It has a plan and is not stymied by zealots who continue to believe — falsely — that all energy must be “free market” driven. OPEC is a cartel protected largely by the U.S. military — hardly free-market stuff.

State governments have embraced the Pickens Plan far more than the federal government. Twenty-two state governors have banded together, led by Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin and Colorado’s John Hickenlooper, supporting initiatives to purchase natural gas vehicles as state fleet vehicles, while updating taxes, regulations and laws to put natural gas on an even footing with imported diesel.

I do get frustrated at a lack of ownership on energy policy. We now have U.S. State Department officials determining the fate of the much-needed Keystone Pipeline based on environmental assessments. Wouldn’t they be better off forging a North American Energy Alliance to secure a stable, reliable source of Mexican and Canadian oil to free us from the OPEC oil cartel?

Helping America to get on its own resources is my way of giving back to a country that has allowed a man from Holdenville, Oklahoma, to be as successful as my talent and energy would take me. And I would do it all again.

Here’s to another five great years of the Pickens Plan.