Not that Boone Pickens has a lot of credibility left, but he is at least repeating what a lot of people active in the oil and gas industry are recognizing. I wonder how long it will take the mainstream media, voters and the people in Washington, D.C. to catch on to the enormous changes taking place in the U.S. and around the world. I say we have some good times coming. We may actually be able to climb out of this massive pit of debt we are in.
Peter
Boone Pickens says we have more energy than he imagined, thanks to fracking
By ELIZABETH SOUDER
ELIZABETH SOUDER The Dallas
Morning News
Staff Writer
Published: 19 July 2012 09:56
PM
T. Boone Pickens, who used to regularly warn Americans about running out of
oil, said Thursday the world has far more energy than he ever imagined, thanks
to fracking.
Since oil and gas companies figured out how to use hydraulic fracturing and
horizontal drilling techniques profitably, the amount of available fuel in the
U.S. has boomed. Pickens, who runs hedge fund company BP Capital, said at a
conference Thursday this boom is about to fundamentally change the world.
“You, me and the rest of America are sitting on a huge change in energy
globally,” he said at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute’s
Energy Summit in Irving.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries “isn’t going to have near
the power they have today in five years, maybe in three,” Pickens said.
Pickens, who made his fortune trying, and failing, to buy big oil companies,
said: “There’s a lot more energy in the world than I ever imagined there would
be.”
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting water and chemicals
into a well to crack the underground shale and release oil or gas. The process
has boosted domestic production, annoyed people living nearby, increased air
pollution in some places and worried many people about water contamination.
Pickens has been trying since 2008 to persuade Americans to stop importing
oil from hostile countries and replace it with domestic energy such as natural
gas. He inspired a debate about imported oil but couldn’t persuade Congress to
offer incentives for truckers to switch to natural gas.
“I thought I could sell this in no time. Wrong, wrong. I could not,” he said.
He said more Senate Democrats than Republicans voted for the bill.
“You all have no idea how many millions of dollars I have put into
Republicans over the years, and I got six votes,” he said.
He and Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman, who interviewed Pickens
at the event, agreed the U.S. doesn’t have a real energy plan. “We actually had
a plan, and it was called cheap and imported,” Smitherman joked.
Instead, Pickens’ Clean Fuels company, which sells natural gas vehicle fuel
pumps, is installing pumps on its own. He said the lower cost of natural gas
compared with diesel is prompting truckers to make the switch.
