T. Boone Pickens has a Bone to Pick

T. Boone Pickens may not be the typical profile of an energy policy reformist, but like him or not, he is leading the way to the energy of the future; if only Americans would follow.

Pickens, born in 1928, heads the BP Capital Management (named for him, and unrelated to British Petroleum) and is ranked the 117th richest person in America. He is well known as a takeover giant, having orchestrated the purchase of a number of what he considered "undervalued" oil-and-gas companies in the 1980's. In short: he's an oil man. And he's also a politically active republican, providing support to the Swiftboat Vets, a group made infamous during the 2004 presidential campaign by their (unsubstanciated) claims against John Kerry regarding his service in Vietnam.

This election cycle he's putting his two cents in again, opposing the move toward off-shore drilling that was first advocated by the republicans and which the democrats have spinelessly conceeded to.

In July of this year, breaking with the republican party line, Pickens unveiled the Pickens Plan, a comphrehensive energy policy reform proposal encouraging the use of alternatives to oil. Amoung them: wind, clean(er) coal, and natural gas. The man and the plan are the cover story of the September issue of Texas Monthly. The author, Skip Hollandsworth, was on KERA's Think today, Sept 15th. To listen to a podcast of the show, go to Think and click There Will be Boone.

I'm glad to hear this man, a wealthy Texas oil-man no less, speaking sanely. I've heard democrats and republicans, pundits and analysts telling me that the problem is "we are too dependant on foreign oil. " But that is not problem. The problem is that was too dependant on oil. We should be investing in the energy of the future. Off-shore drilling would take a decade to contribute to our national reserve, and if we are still wholly dependant upon oil, no matter where it came from, in 2018, we will have been left so far in the dust there will be no hope to catch up with rest of the world.