Analysis of T. Boone Pickens’ interview with the LA Times

Articles — By forcechange on August 6, 2008 5:00 am

Our favorite wind farmer, T. Boone Pickens sat down with the LA Times last week for a great interview.  We will paraphrase some of the highlights of that chat and add our own analysis here:

• Regarding the source of our high gas prices:

Pickens says, of the 85 million barrels of oil used by the world each day, the U.S. accounts for 21 million.  Quoting him, “that’s 25% we’re using, with [only] 4% of the population and 3% of the reserves.”  Pickens uses this fact to illustrate that it is not Exxon-Mobile or speculators to blame, but instead simply a situation where demand is outweighing available supply. 

Regardless, the wildly disproportionate consumption of oil by the U.S. compared to our reserves further indicates the silliness of thinking we can drill our way out of this problem, as Pickens often notes, despite our politicians’ pandering on this issue.

• Regarding Al Gore and climate change:

Pickens indicates that while he believes that human caused climate change is occurring, that issue is on “page 2.”  For Pickens, our dependence on foreign oil, to the tune of $700 billion per year, is on “page 1.” 

Fortunately for good environmentalists and good patriots alike, for the most part, these two interests remain generally aligned, thereby permitting a win-win situation where we could both get off foreign oil and decrease the effects of climate change with the same plan.

• Regarding how we can enact the solution:

Pickens states, “I think that if Congress would do something like Eisenhower did in the Interstate highways – that is to say, an emergency, which it is. It’s like war, and we need to address it in a non-partisan way…. We have the vast resources of wind and solar, but the naysayers say wait a minute, solar isn’t there yet. Don’t worry about it; I have enough faith in America….”

This is where Pickens exhibits his most optimism, and we, and others, have the most apprehension.  Congress has shown a complete inability to move towards a solution and there is a little indication that they are getting their act together.

• Regarding the development of the transmission lines and infrastructure necessary to move wind energy generated in the middle of the country to the east and west coasts:

Pickens says, “let the government do it. If they don’t want to, industry will do it. Industry will be quicker; you know that. We can get it done a lot faster…. You would be surprised how much you can get done in 10 years.”

However, if the task does fall on the private sector, the federal government would still be required to create the regulatory environment necessary to make the project economically feasible.

• Regarding people who say we should shift our vehicles to electricity instead of natural gas, as Pickens proposes:

Pickens indicates that he is in favor of the electric car, however the technology is not there yet to allow it to be a real solution.  Instead, natural gas should be the bridge that we use in the short-term to get to a point where we can find a real lasting solution for clean cars.  Basically, Pickens is saying we have a present danger, and need an immediate solution.  In the long-term, he thinks we will transition our cars off of natural gas.

Describing this, he states, “You have to kind of accept that. You get people that say, well, I want to go to the electric car quicker. Well, the 700 [billion dollars per year] keeps ticking on you on the electric car. We’re not there on the electric car. Am I opposed? No I’m not opposed. I’m for electric; I’m for anything that gets that number down.”

• And regarding leadership:

“What’s been missing for 40 years is a plan. We’ve never had a plan; there’s no energy plan. And it all comes to the fact that it’s a leadership problem.”

Exactly.

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