Pickens is for “everything that is American”

At a hearing today in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, T. Boone Pickens, founder and CEO of BP Capital Management, spoke out in support of alternative energy. Pickens unveiled his “Picken’s Plan” which focuses on capturing the abundant domestic renewable energy resources to reduce the role of imported oil in the United States. Pickens supports every available means to use American resources instead of foreign oil such as wind, solar, natural gas, drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf.

The United States currently imports approximately 70 percent of its oil from nations who aren’t always friendly towards the U.S., which is a recipe for national disaster, Pickens said. His plan calls for investing in power generation from domestic renewable resources such as wind and using the abundant American supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel. Pickens said that 22 percent of electrical energy can be gained from wind power in the Great Plains regions. Building up wind energy in that region will also revitalize rural America and jump start the economy.

Pickens called the government to action in supporting the plan, give a 10 year extension on Production Tax Credits, which will allow private enterprises to invest in renewable energy. The current energy crisis was recently compared to the space race of 30 years ago by former vice-president Al Gore, and if the U.S. could put a man on the moon then it should be able to invest in renewable, American energy, he said. “I am for everything that is American” and “I only have one enemy and that is foreign oil,” Pickens said.