T. Boone Pickens: The Man With an Energy Plan

T. Boone Pickens has made a ton of money on oil, but he now has an energy plan. PickensPlan is ambitious, but the goal seems like a good one: reduce our dependence on petroleum.

For some of my thoughts and some data about energy, look back at Energy Independence. We need to change how we power our transportation needs. Right now, we are dependent on oil and that's bad for several reasons.

Pickens is pushing natural gas and wind power. Here is his website's summary of the crux of his plan:

The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.

Check it out and learn more about the reality of our dependence on petroleum. We can't drill our way out of this. Pickens has lots to gain from natural gas becoming more important, so he's hardly impartial. Still, his assessment of our energy problems seems pretty accurate. His precise solution might not be the absolute best, but it's certainly better than trying to drill our way out of it.

Wind might not be the answer, but it could be part of the solution.

Note: Diane Rehm had a show about electric cars. Two guests represented companies I have blogged about: A123 and Tesla Motors. Check it out: Real Media or Windows Media. It was an interesting discussion about recent advances in technology for electric cars.