T. Boone Pickens is angry. He's funny. But he's angry. Americans spend $700 Billion a year on foreign oil. It bothers him so much, it gave him insomnia. His wife told him to fix it. Not the insomnia. The energy crisis.
One of the most memorable moments of the forum was when T. Boone Pickens shared this personal anecdote from his life with the Kansas City business community. He was having trouble sleeping one night repeating incessantly we have to DO something. His wife said, “are you going to do it NOW?” He said, “No.” She said “Well then do it in the morning and sleep now.” He did. And then he woke up and went to work.
As fellow KMBZ Business Forum keynote Bob Dole’s energy advisor in the 1970’s, he said reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil was at the top of his agenda even back then. He told a large audience of literally hundreds of business owners with local TV media in plain sight what Dole said to him when he asked why no one in Washington was doing anything about our energy crisis.
T. Boone Pickens, speaking in his unscripted (or seemingly so) elegant “good ol’ boy” Texas Oilman drawl, stated something to the affect of “See that sleeping dog there? Politicians do not wake up sleeping dogs and energy is one of those sleeping dogs. But if someone trips over that dog and wakes it up, call us first.” A wave of spontaneous laughter swept across the room. His timing and delivery were flawless.
According to the billionaire, if we do nothing, that 700 billion dollars we spend on oil every year could double in 10 years. He made an interesting reference to the Clinton administration promising that by the end of the 1980’s we would be energy independent. But he admits that Bush was just as guilty. Both candidates talked about having a plan in their campaign speeches but then no one on either side of the aisle actually did anything about it, he said.
T. Boone Pickens paints a frightening portrait of our energy future comparing America to a big canoe in the rapids that is close to going off the cliff and into the falls. He challenges Kansas City business leaders to question whether they consider the 700 billion dollars going out of our country into the coffers of foreign nations to be an economic problem. This issue rouses a groundswell of uncomfortable laughter from the VIPs in attendance.
America represents 4 percent of the global population yet we consume 25 percent of all the oil produced worldwide. “We can’t drill our way out of this. Not a prayer,” proclaimed T. Boone Pickens. Political leaders and the oil establishment will tell us to keep on drilling, he said. “Now you will not talk to anyone who has seen more dry holes than me. Forget it.”
T. Boone Pickens was a gadfly in Washington, talking about the crisis in 1988 when the forces that opposed him—from lobbyists and political action committees to major energy concerns and their political allies—were formidable adversaries even for an oil tycoon like him.
If the powers that be “don’t want you to do something they sure can slow you down,” he quips in his classic understated style. It is clear from the expression on his face that he enjoys immensely taking KMBZ business owners and executives on his roller coaster ride.
The part that makes T. Boone Pickens stand out from the crowded podium of people who are extremely adept at pointing out the problem yet not so terrific at finding a solution is that he actually has a plan.
T. Boone Pickens offered examples of successful models to support innovations he recommends. He talked about Sweetwater, Texas, a town with a small population but poised to be a major player in wind energy. They are already benefiting from the rising demand.
How do we know? “They’re building a new gymnasium. You always know a town is doing well when they’re building a new gymnasium.” He wants to revitalize the heartland’s wind corridor and grow its cities by supplying wind energy to the east and west coasts.
He said Congress has the power to grant transmission rights and pave the way for a new interstate wind power distribution system. But more importantly, he underscores the importance of diversification. The current plan would be about half coal with most everything else coming from natural gas and nuclear energy but T. Boone Pickens has a better idea.
He suggests 22 percent wind power instead of natural gas. So the pie would be broken out as follows: 50 percent coal, 22 percent nuclear power and 22 percent wind power. In his estimation this would reduce America’s 700 billion annual “burn rate” by 38 percent. The audience was audibly alarmed when he pointed out that 30 percent of all transport fuel is being drained by commercial trucks carrying consumer goods to market.
T. Boone Picken’s vision to revitalize rural America by creating new jobs for generations of alternative energy workers would all be funded by private enterprise and citizens. He doesn’t believe it should or feasibly could come from the Federal government. He and Warren Buffet discussed the business model and they both came to the conclusion that corporate America had to step up to the plate.
The first order of business in a long-term solution to energy independence is to upgrade our infrastructure. He referred to the “accidental grid” which was cobbled together over 100 years with layers of obsolete technologies piled on top of one another.
“Who can we blame for our problem? Ourselves! The political mindset of let sleeping dogs lie has left the wealthiest nation in the world without an energy plan for 40 years!” Almost everyone in attendance at the KMBZ Business Forum was nodding their heads.
T. Boone Pickens leaves Kansas City on a positive note and a sense of humor about our predicament. The ball is starting to roll. Look at the trash trucks in Southern California. Each truck is equivalent to 25 cars. Poor air quality was the intial motivation but now they're ahead of the curve and a model to follow. Today, over 50 percent of these trash trucks run on natural gas. “They’re too quiet,” someone said to him on his road trip. “I listen for it but I never hear them coming.” He wants to put a bell on them.
This commentary and analysis was written by Andrew Ellenberg, group executive producer for Entercom Communications Corp. which owns and operates News Radio 980 KMBZ. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
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