Famous Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens got a standing ovation Thursday after he rolled out his plan to wean the nation off imported oil.
Pickens launched the plan July 8 via a $58 million advertising and web campaign. Its website is PickensPlan.com.
The website received 170,000 hits in its first two days, according to Pickens, who was the keynote luncheon speaker Thursday at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association's annual seminar on natural gas. The luncheon was held at the Colorado Convention Center.
Pickens' goal is simple: To slash America's thirst for imported oil, which costs $700 billion a year.
"We have to cut down on the $700 billion a year that's going out of this country," Pickens said. "We import 70 percent of this country's oil. This country can be brought to our knees if the oil was cut off."
In 1970, the U.S. imported 24 percent of its oil. By 1990 it was 42 percent, and today it's almost 70 percent, Pickens said.
"It's the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. We can't afford it," he said.
Pickens aims to cut imports of crude oil by reducing the demand for gasoline and diesel for cars and trucks.
The U.S. should switch to the use of natural gas-powered vehicles for a chunk of the national fleet, Pickens said.
"Natural gas is cleaner, it's cheaper, it's abundant and it's domestic," Pickens said.
Natural gas generates about 22 percent of the country's electricity. If most of that natural gas was diverted from electricity generation to fuel for cars and trucks, and if wind turbines generate that electricity instead, that would cut demand for imported oil by about $300 billion a year at today's prices, Pickens said.
"The answer is wind. We have more wind than anyone else in the world and we're not using it," he said.
Pickens said it can be done if the nation -- and its political leaders -- believe energy is a national crisis that can be fixed.
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