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T. Boone Pickens, a conservative who donated the money for the “Swiftboat” ad campaign against Democrat John Kerry in 2004, has weighed in this time with a decidedly un-Republican idea.
And he’s right.
Pickens, who has made a fortune drilling for oil, argues that this is one energy crisis we cannot drill our way out of.
And why is that? Because the United States has 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves and consumes 20 percent of the world’s production. That’s a losing proposition — even if we drastically increase our drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, as Republicans want to do, or force oil companies to drill on unused leases elsewhere, as Democrats sought.
Pickens wants to do two things:
What’s exciting about these plans is that they get us off the dime in terms of the way we think about energy. There is no other way to look at this: We absolutely need to develop alternatives to oil.
Look at China. That nation, with a billion people, is becoming more and more like the United States in its energy use. Other developing countries will follow. Given that increased world demand for oil, it is absolute folly to believe that we can continue on our present path — even if we could somehow drill more domestic oil.
The answer is alternative energy. Just ask an oil man.
