Published: July 08, 2008 11:15 pm            

Pickens wants more emphasis on alternative energy

"This one emergency we can't drill our way out of." See links at right for Pickens' YouTube channel and Web site.

New York — Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday he'll spend $58 million on a multimedia campaign designed to bring more focus to solving the nation's energy crisis.

The former wildcatter, who now heads the Dallas-based hedge fund BP Capital Management LP, kicked off the media blitz Tuesday with a news conference in New York.

It will include television, newspaper and radio advertisements, as well as a hefty online presence that includes a Facebook page and a dedicated YouTube channel, to spotlight an issue Pickens calls the biggest problem facing America: its dependence on foreign oil.

"It's 100 percent Boone's money," Pickens said in a meeting with reporters and editors at The Associated Press' headquarters. "I don't have any partners in this."

The ad campaign is centered around a proposal the octogenarian is calling "The Pickens Plan," which aims to cut U.S. dependence on foreign sources by more than a third over the next decade.

The plan calls for the installation of thousands of wind turbines straddling the middle of the country that Pickens said would generate enough power to meet 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs. New power lines would be needed to connect them to cities in the Midwest, South and Western U.S.

Meanwhile, natural gas that had been used for electricity production would be turned into a transportation fuel that could replace some gasoline and diesel fuel.

Last year, Pickens, an Oklahoma native and Oklahoma State University graduate, announced plans to build the world's largest wind farm in Texas. The cost of the project could grow to $12 billion before its scheduled completion in 2014.

Wind power benefits from a 2-cents-per-kilowatt-hour tax credit. Pickens recently called on Congress to enact a long-term extension of the credit, which is set to expire in December.

Pickens dismissed a question about political or business motives for his plan.

"I don't have any profit motive in this. I'm doing it for America, that's my point," he said in the meeting with the AP.

He said, however, that the United States has "earned the right" to an agreement that would effectively give the U.S. the opportunity to buy Iraqi oil at market prices. The Middle Eastern country, he added, "has a real opportunity" to increase its output by up to 5 million barrels per day, twice what it produces now.

Pickens said the cost of oil, which fell sharply Tuesday but remains within range of all-time highs, could yet rise further. That is because he expects global supplies will remain constrained even as demand continues to rise.

"This whole thing, all it can do is get worse. ... The only thing that could turn it around is global recession," he said.

        

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