Pickens - USA Should Develop Natural Gas for Transportation

Texas oil baron T. Boone Pickens told Congress that the country should ramp up a plan to use domestic natural gas and wind power to reduce the nation's "addiction" to foreign oil.

According to a report by Virginia-based SNL Financial, the founder of BP Capital Management LP, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee June 17 that the country should divert the natural gas that accounts for 22 percent of the nation's electricity to the transportation sector.

"Natural gas is the second-largest energy resource in the country," Pickens told the committee. "If we take the natural gas we're using for electrical generation and move it to transportation, we can replace 38 percent of our foreign oil imports. And that, sports fans, is a real number."

Reducing foreign oil imports by 38 percent would save the nation nearly $300 billion every year. Wind generation could then be ramped up quickly to replace the electricity displaced from the power grid, he suggested.

"It's time we got serious about using [wind power]," he said.

Pickens, who made his fortune in the oil business, could become a major fixture in the wind industry with his proposal to construct a 4,000-MW wind farm in Texas.

Citing a federal study showing that the United States could develop 20 percent of its electricity from wind, Pickens called for a project to build a transmission backbone in the center of the nation.