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When T. Boone Pickens discusses energy policy with Democrats and Republicans this week, neither side may like all that they hear. With average gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, energy issues have come to dominate the legislative debate this summer and both parties have sought the counsel of the oilman/investment whiz/wind power promoter. What does Pickens, a geologist before he was a billionaire, think of the debate? “There’s nothing they are saying that is going to solve the problem,” he told The Hill. For example, Pickens doesn’t expect much oil to be found off the coasts. That would seem to undercut the Republican push to open the areas to drilling. “The public thinks, ‘Well, God. If we got 86 billion barrels of oil sitting out there, why don’t we go drill it and produce it and lower the price of gasoline to $2?’ That’s kind of the way it’s been characterized. Which I think is totally misleading,” he said (editor’s note: A transcription of the interview will appear in the Business & Lobbying section of Tuesday’s edition of The Hill). That should bolster Democratic leaders who are resisting pressure to drill, although Pickens does support conducting seismic studies to get a better handle on potential resources. What about Democratic efforts to rein in “speculation,” a push that Democrats in both the House and Senate may make this week? Pickens doesn’t think much of that idea, either. “It’s a waste of time. Doesn’t have anything to do with it. … Everybody tries to place the blame, and the blame is our own lack of leadership over the past 40 years on energy.” Pickens’s main mission in Washington this week is to promote the Pickens Plan (www.pickensplan.com.), his effort to use natural gas as a transportation fuel instead of as a source of electricity. Wind power would replace the natural gas on the grid. And natural gas would replace gasoline, saving the country $700 billion over 10 years that would otherwise go to buy foreign oil, he said. |
