Since I started the Pickens Plan in the summer of 2008, I have reminded Americans that every President since Richard Nixon has promised to lead our country to energy independence and no one has made good on that pledge. As it happens, it was 40 years ago today, November 7, 1973, that President Nixon first called for action on an energy plan called Project Independence.
President Nixon said:
“Let us set as our national goal, in the spirit of Apollo, with the determination of the Manhattan Project, that by the end of this decade we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy sources.”
We landed men on the moon – and brought them back safely to Earth; we ended World War II with two blasts of atomic weapons; but 40 years later we are twice as dependent on foreign oil as we were when Nixon gave that speech.