T. Boone Pickens Says I'm Right

I'm here in the Big Tent where a panel is taking place with T. Boone Pickens and the head of the Sierra Club. And T. Boone Pickens says I'm right. 

If we drill everywhere where we can in America, Pickens says, from ANWR to the Outer Continental Shelf, the highest daily oil production we could achieve is 5 million barrels a day. Considering that the U.S. uses 20 million barrels a day, even if we drill everywhere we can, we'd still only be producing 25% of our countries' petroleum needs. The rest we'll have to import so long as our country is dependent on oil. 

I'm also so glad to hear that Pickens is not only talking about wind power but also solar power, and that his natural gas refueling plan is focused on trucks and buses, which is much easier than cars. 

For his part, Carl Pope from the Sierra Club is describing to us what he calls the "Toronto Plan." The City of Toronto has a 10 year program to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses...a zero-risk investment with 20% ROI is what they've seen. But it requires governmental action to organize, but not to fund. Banks are happy to fund it, he says, because they know its a zero risk investment with 20% ROI. 

T. Boone Pickens is being asked about the "drill here, drill now" rhetoric and says don't worry about the offshore drilling...there's nothing there. Let them drill. They won't do it. The oil companies don't want to buy leases cause they know there is no oil there. Most we'll see out of OCS is 5 billion barrels. ANWR maybe 10 billion barrels. We're faced with a global market for energy. Pickens says 70% of the world's oil reserves are owned by state-owned oil companies. These states have an interest in manipulating the oil prices, and America doesn't have enough reserves to stop them from doing it. Unless we do his plan to shift from diesel fuel to natural gas for transportation needs.