The following op-ed piece by T. Boone Pickens ran in the Aspen Daily News on August 21, 2010.
Some of the best thinkers in business, academia and government are meeting in Aspen this weekend to examine the social, economic, environmental and national security benefits of alternative energy.
A significant amount of attention is given to the production of electricity. The numbers are clear. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more than 46 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. comes from coal-fired power plants. About a fifth comes from nuclear power, another 21 percent from natural gas, and the remaining 13 percent from other sources like hydroelectric, solar, wind and petroleum.
We import far too much of the oil we use every day. In July alone, the United States imported 388 million barrels of oil, approximately 70 percent of which was used as a transportation fuel.
I’m all for using every American resource to power our nation and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. However, because petroleum is a relatively minor player in the production of electricity, we need to look to the transportation sector to reduce our continuing dependence on foreign oil generally, and OPEC oil in particular.
Those 388 million barrels imported in July represent the highest monthly total since Barack Obama was inaugurated. The amount we spent on foreign oil in June, $27.3 billion, represents nearly 55 percent of our trade deficit. It’s a national and economic security disaster.
Thankfully we have the American resources to combat this dependence. Domestic natural gas in particular can take the lead in making a serious dent in our foreign oil reliance.
Natural gas is not only abundant, but it’s significantly cleaner than foreign diesel. Natural gas is the most widely distributed natural resource in America with lines running up every street and down every alley in just about every city and town, making it readily available for use.
First, let’s look at trucks. Heavy-duty trucks use approximately one-third of the oil we import as a transportation fuel. And, because heavy-duty trucks either go home to the barn every night or, if they are over-the-road 18-wheelers, they tend to run the same routes on a regular basis.
Trucks like these, and other fleets — municipal and school buses; taxis; utility and express delivery trucks; and any fleet which goes home to the barn at night — can be easily refueled at a natural gas pump in the garage overnight.
Just ask AT&T, which has one of the largest private fleets in the nation. Last year, AT&T announced it’s transitioning 15,000 vehicles away from gasoline and diesel to alternative fuels, including 8,000 vehicles that will run on natural gas.
Natural gas is the only fuel we have that can power heavy trucks today, making it the perfect fuel to make an immediate and significant impact on foreign oil.
If, over the next seven years, we replaced all of our heavy trucks now running on diesel with trucks running on natural gas, that alone would reduce our need for OPEC oil by half; and in that time batteries, hybrids, and other alternative fuel cars and light trucks will be widely available, reducing our need for imported oil even further.
A NGV industry in the United States would add jobs immediately, especially in regions that have been hit hardest by the recession. It would reduce our need for foreign oil, which would prevent OPEC from using oil as a weapon to influence American foreign policy, and it would have a major impact on our environment.
Natural gas is not the permanent solution to the foreign oil issue. It is a transition fuel that can take us from importing and burning billions of dollars worth of imported oil to utilizing one of our most abundant, and widely distributed, domestic resources.
As we discuss alternative energy, we have to go beyond the production of electricity and look to transportation fuel as a prime candidate for green energy and green jobs.