American Electric Power's Mike Morris Recognizes That Our Country Has Gone Far Too Long Without An Energy Plan
What do you hear about the Pickens Plan?
People ask me, “What do you think Boone’s up to?” I say it’s the simplest thing in the world. He is up to making America dependent on no one in the oil transportation marketplace.
Give us your take on the Pickens Plan.
It’s a logical, well-thought through plan, and it has really got people focused. This is really impressive. It’s time America had an energy plan. For far too long we haven’t – and look where we are today.
Getting people focused is a huge challenge, isn’t it?
Raising the awareness of the population is what this is all about because if we’re going to have an energy plan in America, it’s going to take this kind of leadership. It’s going to take people like Boone and us and others to really raise that army of voters.
Boone has done an excellent job with the Pickens Plan to bring an additional focus not only on how to bring renewables into the marketplace but the reality of finally addressing the issue of our dependence on imported oil. I appreciate that oil is a world commodity, and I appreciate that we’ll probably always consume some. But we can make a huge difference, and in fact we should make a huge difference in the amount of other sources of energy that we put into the automobile.
What are some of the other sources besides foreign oil?
Plug-in electric hybrids are one source. We also can take compressed natural gas, which is used really worldwide in a much higher percentage than it is here, and change that technology as well.
These are all really very solid ideas, and taken together they can really approach this issue that so dogs our country: how to make certain we have adequate energy. How do we get renewables in? How do we at long last take on the challenge of energy independence?
That really is part of the reason that we continue at American Electric Power to talk about the issue of having an interstate electric transmission grid that mirrors the interstate highway system. Having such a system will allow us to harness the vast resources of solar, wind and geothermal energy from remote areas where it is plentiful and deliver it to places where it’s needed.
It sounds like we’re actually starting to address these key questions. These discussions are now taking place.
American Electric Power will be in the middle of that along with great American leaders like Boone Pickens.
REMARKS CONDENSED AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE FROM PICKENS PLAN INTERVIEWS