T. Boone Pickens, longtime oil man and entrepreneur unveiled his proposed energy plan two days ago.  With Congressmen such as Joseph Lieberman supporting him, Pickens stated that it was essential and critical that the United States break away from the stranglehold that dependence on foreign oil has on the country.

Pickens stated that if the United States does not create change immediately, the country will be getting 80% of its oil from countries who hate us.  As it is, the U.S. is getting over 40% of its oil from foreign countries, and many of those countries find it in their best interests to keep prices high and quantities under strict control so they can control both the fuel – and indirectly, the economy – of the United States and other “western” countries.

Pickens has suggested a plan that includes using wind power for electricity and possibly using natural gas for transportation.  He would also entertain drilling in the Alaskan and Arctic wilderness.  All of this would be in an effort to drastically reduce U.S. dependence upon foreign controlled oil.

Opponents of the plan feel that natural gas is not a workable solution for many reasons, the main one being that Russia and other countries who are not United States supporters control the lion’s share of the world’s natural gas and, as a result, the U.S. could very well be trading dependence upon one type of foreign controlled fuel for another type of foreign controlled fuel, which could lead to a similar crisis in the near future.

Regardless of what path is taken or what combination of steps can be used, most people are in agreement with Pickens that something needs to be done now to reverse this country’s dependence on foreign oil. 

Pickens’ plan may be right for the country or it may need some changes.  Those ideas can be and will be hashed out over the coming weeks and months.  The main point, however, which can be agreed upon by most of us who are tired of being held hostage to foreign oil companies, is that we need a solution to this problem and we need to act now.

Tags: drilling, foreign oil, fuel crisis, natural gas

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 5:49 am and is filed under Gas Prices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.