Now we are again hearing in the news one of America’s most unforgettable names. T. Boone Pickens, founded the largest independently owned oil company, Mesa Petroleum, and developed Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a public company that owns and operates natural gas fueling stations from British Columbia to the Mexican border.
Clean Energy has launched a $58 million national advertising campaign to promote Mr. Picken’s plan to reduce what he calls America’s addiction to foreign oil. As www.pickensplan.com puts it: “In television and print advertisements, in stories and every imaginable talk-show format, appearances before Congress, and town hall meetings across the country, [Mr. Pickens] bluntly [tells] other Americans: ‘I’ve been an oilman my whole life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.’”
According to Mr. Pickens (and many other people), America’s addiction to foreign oil has become a crisis. Every day America consumes 25% of the daily world production, 70% of which is imported. This addiction, says Mr. Pickens, “threatens [the US] economy…environment and…national security.” And world oil production “peaked in 2005…[and] has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand.”
Mr. Pickens’ solution builds on his claim that America has a vast and as yet undeveloped potential for generating energy from the wind. He proposes using wind power to replace natural gas powered electricity generation. (In the Texas panhandle, Mr. Pickens' Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world.) This, he says, can free up natural gas for transportation uses while America develops renewable fuels.
Although a fossil fuel, natural gas has many features that, according to Mr. Pickens, recommend it over gasoline: it’s “significantly cleaner,” “significantly less expensive,” and more abundant: “Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries…are continually adding to existing reserves.” He summarizes his plan as “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.”
There are reports that in the next few weeks, Mr. Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corp. will purchase FuelMaker Inc., a Toronto-based fuel systems company that developed “Phill”, a home vehicle-refueling unit that taps the same gas line as homeowners use for their gas furnace or barbecue. Owned by Honda since 2002, which helped it develop the technology, Fuelmaker looks forward to Clean Energy’s involvement to “take [Phill] to a whole different level [that it otherwise wasn’t] really capable of ”.
Mr. Pickens Plan includes a call to action. At pickensplan.com, support for the enactment of an Energy Independence Plan (Pickens Plan) within the first 100 days of the new administration can be emailed to both presidential candidates.
It seems certain that there will be a large-scale replacement for gasoline. Will it be electric, bio-diesel, fuel cell, or natural gas? Which one will be the short-term solution, and which one will become the dominant technology? Looks like we are going to find out, not too long from now.
Cedric Hughes of Hughes and Company Law Corporation, with contributions from Leslie McGuffin, LL.B., writes a weekly column on traffic advice for The VOICE. "The Road Rules" strives to provide helpful information about driving in British Columbia. We welcome your comments on our published articles and your suggestions for topics you would like us to address. Please email: eginter@hughesco.com. Phone: (604) 602-1818. Punjabi and Hindi: (604) 897-0207.
Email: cedric_hughes@hughesco.com
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