T. Boone Pickens: Bold Man, Bold Plan and the Right Time

In 2005, it occurred to me that someone from the oil world was going to emerge with an aggressive plan to turn tail from drilling and pour massive effort into clean renewable development. I saw demand growing almost out of control to the point of price hyperinflation coupled with a public refusal to alleviate supply. As in the past, such market forces were colliding like tectonic plates which in turn would likely cause a mountain to rise from below. Why did I specifically think it would be someone from the oil world? Because nobody better to catch the oil companies with their pants down and take market leadership than a competitor among them. Another reason would be that oil men have nowhere to go once oil isn't consumed anymore - except renewable energy.

Enter T. Boone Pickens.

T. Boone Pickens puts forth a plan that would result in cutting a third of American oil demand - and doing it quickly. The Pickens Plan includes replacing natural gas for electricity generation with wind power, freeing up said gas for usage in automobiles and vastly increasing the usage of vehicles that can run on it. This idea of shuffling the power deck is intended to buy America enough time to develop a more comprehensive, long-term energy strategy. On the face of it, I have no criticisms and it seems like sound thinking.

The plan's author is not without controversy. Pickens contributed millions to the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth campaign effort to smear John Kerry during his bid for presidential election. He went so far as to offer a $1mm prize to anyone who could disprove any of the Swift Boat Veteran's claims. John Kerry took up the challenge and Pickens effectively backed out of his offer. The rest is history of course.

However, Pickens is probably best known for two things - rapid business building based on acquisition and philanthropy. He jogged through a series of acquisitions in the 80's that elevated him to celebrity status in the business world, some of them considered aggressive and controversial. Through these steps and his subsequent founding of BP Capital Management in 1997, he has amassed a personal wealth estimated at $3 billion. Meanwhile, he conducted his philanthropic affairs with nearly equal zeal. According to media reports, he has donated well over $100 million to humanitarian causes plus another $400 million to Oklahoma State University (his alma mater). The bottom line: Pickens is a bold man with a bold plan.

What timing he has, and it's exactly what we need right now. After all, in the vacuum of leadership that is current-day America, our government has zero solution to offer. Besides, a real leader would go to the private sector to mine for outstanding ideas in a time like this and that would wind up letting Pickens rise to the surface anyway. But instead, once again we are benefitting from the forces of a free capitalist market which reliably cause just such a man to rise at just such a time.

Whether the Pickens Plan is realistic or not is the subject of a different discourse. For now, I'm excited to see someone emerge with an appropriately ambitious and aggressive plan to get us out of oil. For many years I have felt the influence on U.S. foreign policy by our energy requirements has been increasingly devastating. I would even like to suggest that once America develops renewable, clean energy sources in a viable manner that the technology and means to do so be shared or exported to ALL nations in just as vigorous an effort. Even if America is able to pull itself out of the musical-chairs enviornment of oil-based energy, other states (i.e. China) will likely replace the U.S. as a world aggressor allowing a critical, finite resource to drive foreign policy. Until the world is rid of states motivated as such, we are all living on a more dangerous planet.

Will Picken's plan - and more importantly, his firey spirit and all-American ambition - be adopted and embraced, or will his effort fall prey to the venom, apathy and ridicule we've encountered all too often in today's national discourse. Either way, the clock is ticking and we needed to start this kind of thing 20 years ago. We're LATE as it is if you ask me.