Will The Pickens Plan Make Us Oil Independent?

There has been a lot of buzz on the internet and in the halls of Congress lately about the energy plan sponsored and promoted by oil man T. Boone Pickens of Texas.

The Pickens energy plan, in a nutshell, calls for increasing spending on domestic wind projects through private investment, boosted by generous tax breaks and subsidies and for developing natural gas as a fuel for vehicles though use of compressed natural gas and gas to liquids fuel production.

There is some good evidence that the plan could work if both government and private industry embraced the idea. There is more than enough wind energy along the so called "wind corridor" which runs roughly from West Texas to Canada, to provide all the electricity that we need.

T. Boone Pickens and his advisers suggest that we could supply twenty percent of our electricity from wind within ten years and more in the years past that. He suggests that we take the surplus natural gas that twenty percent wind power gives us and use that for vehicle fuel.

The reality is that while this plan would technically be possible it would require a major stimulus package from the federal government at a time when the government has sold much of its soul to ethanol and voters in corn producing states.

Ethanol has much less of a chance than natural gas of supplying our energy needs due to the huge amount of petrochemicals and oil based fuels needed to grow corn but it is a very popular voter issue especially in farming states where the first political contests are held.

Natural gas, which is a very abundant and environmentally friendly fuel, has an image problem. Because it is connected the oil industry, what many view to be a dirty and environmentally unfriendly industry, it is not recognized as the clean domestic fuel that it is.

With recent discoveries such as the Marcellus Shale and Barnett Shale there appears to be a much larger future supply under our own soil than was ever imagined.

The newly discovered Marcellus Formation alone possibly holds over five hundred trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

With this amount of natural gas still untapped under our own soil many wonder why natural gas has not come into the national spotlight as a solution for our oil crisis.

The Pickens plans shows all signs of being based on good science and logic and it could work, but only if our government makes it a priority.

The fact that it is sponsored by an oil man both gives it some amount credibility but also provokes those skeptical of that industry and its motives. Those that remember T. Boone Pickens support of the "swiftboat ads" that help defeat John Kerry may hold still hold a grudge but the fact that T. Boone Pickens is reaching out now to democrats is a good sign.