T. Boone Pickens had an op-ed essay in the Indianapolis Star which reminded Hoosiers that, although high oil prices have dropped off their radar screen “the total amount of U.S. dollars we ship overseas to fund our oil imports is still staggering.”
Boone wrote:
If oil stays at the OPEC target of $75 a barrel, we will export nearly $300 billion — a third of $1 trillion that could, and should, be cycling through the American economy instead of the economies of the Middle East, North Africa and South America.
Seventy percent of the oil we import is used as a transportation fuel as gasoline or diesel. Batteries and fuel cells are not ready for widespread use, Boone said, but he wrote:
We have a domestic fuel that can replace imported oil. It is natural gas, and we have a lot of it. According to a recent study we have 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to last for 118 years.
It’s not all about the money. Jobs are a big part of the need to stop depending on imported oil.
The United States should look for every possible way to create more domestic jobs. Jump-starting a natural gas vehicle sector would help do that. From manufacturing, to refitting, to maintaining vehicles, to increased drilling (and providing the tools to do that) and upgrading the nation’s distribution system would produce tens of thousands of jobs starting within weeks, not years.
To read the entire essay by Boone in the Indianapolis Star, click HERE.
— The Pickens Team