Published: August 14, 2008 02:27 pm      

Pickens plan draws a crowd

McALESTER, Okla. — T. Boone Pickens likens the dilemma the nation faces in regard to energy to riding in a boat headed toward the Niagara Falls.



“I feel like I’m floating down the Niagara River,” Pickens said.



“There’s no oar in here. There’s no motor in here. There’s not even a life preserver in here — and now I’m starting to hear the waterfalls.”



Pickens spoke to an overflow crowd jammed in the Southeastern Expo Center in McAlester on Wednesday to hear the billionaire gas and oilman tell them the nation is streaking toward an energy disaster.



Pickens though, told them he had the solution.



In addition to the 1,000 people who were seated, another 50 lined the walls or stood outside in the hallway as the Oklahoma native urged the crowd to join him in a grass-roots movement to support his Pickens Plan.



The audience at the Expo Center applauded as Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry took the stage to introduce Pickens to the overflow crowd.



Pickens, striding across the stage and writing at times on a board to illustrate his points, gave the crowd a primer of his Pickens Plan —and why he says it’s needed.



“We import 70 percent of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year,” Pickens said.



Pickens envisions a series of wind turbines stretching across the Great Plains from Texas to the Canadian border.



Under Pickens’ plan, power generated by the turbines would free up 22 percent of the natural gas used to generate electrical power.



The natural gas, in turn, could be used as an alternative transportation source for gasoline and diesel engines.



Hybrid cars, which run partly on electrical power, won’t solve the problem, Pickens said. Don’t get the idea that an electric battery can move a diesel truck down the highway, he told the crowd.



Pickens, who is 80 and from nearby Holdenville in Hughes County, said the nation’s energy dependence has been building for a long time.



In 1970, the U.S. imported 24 percent of its crude oil.“In 1991, we were at 42 percent,” he said.



“Now, we’re right under 72 percent.”



Pickens said the problem the imbalance presents to the nation’s security is almost more important than the economic problem.



“We’ve had no leadership in Washington — Democrat or Republican — on this issue,” Pickens said to a rousing round of applause.



“I can see we’re in the same boat,” Pickens said.



If the nation doesn’t do something about its energy problem, there will be no point in worrying about others such as health care, Social Security and education, he said.



The solution is finding alternative energy sources, Pickens said.



“I want to use the wind. I want to use the solar; I want to use everything that’s American,” he said.



He started warning as early as 1991 that the nation is headed toward an energy crisis, Pickens said,



“I said “We’ve got to do something different,”’ Pickens recalled, but all he heard in response was “Good speech!”



Pickens urged those in the audience to sign on for his Pickens Plan, to help pressure Congress into supporting it.



He said 250,000 people have already signed up — he wants to get a million.



Even if the wind turbines were all erected by private investors, it would take the help of Congress to get the harnessed power to transmission grids, which is why he said he needs the grassroots support.



Pickens said his plan would revitalize parts of rural America.



“This is a plan and it will work,” he said. “Natural gas is the only thing that will replace foreign oil — and we’ve got an abundance of it. It will be good for Oklahoma because its key components are wind power and natural gas.”



During the town hall meeting, Pickens urged those who were present to join his cause.



“This is going to work,” he said. “Just get with me, stick with me, and we will win.”