Pickens Plan

Last Thursday I attended a town hall meeting at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. The featured speaker was T. Boone Pickens. He was there to present his energy plan to whoever would come and listen. 2000 people showed up. They filled the hall. I don't think that is the whole number of those who are concerned about energy and where we get it from. I can tell you that those in attendance were fired up about this issue.

Mr. Pickens has a lot of good, viable ideas in my opinion. (For what it is worth... and it ain't worth much) The biggest piece of his plan is replacing a large chunk of oil usage with natural gas usage (particularly with transportation of goods) and a large chunk of coal usage with wind power and solar power (focusing first on wind power). To see more details, I'd take a look at his website pickensplan.com.

One thing he said that really caught my attention was his plan to publish in major newspapers and other media outlets lists of governors and federal legislators who support Pickens' plan, another plan, or no plan at all. He is personally contacting all these politicians to get their support or to at least find out if they have an alternative plan. This way we can know if our elected leaders have a plan for energy independence. If they don't, well, they ought to be kicked out of office. I hope that the majority of voters are watching for this information so they can make a good choice.

The reason this stood out to me is because that is how we need to run our country. It doesn't have to be a specific plan for energy independence. T. Boone Pickens himself, who stands to make a profit on this plan while doing good for our country, said he would follow any plan rather than his own if it is better. The point: there aren't any other plans out there. Our politicians are sitting on their hands doing nothing, devising nothing, following nothing. I don't know what they are doing. But it ain't much.

We all need to get behind a plan NOW. I recommend taking a look at Pickens' plan and see if you can get behind it. If you can, let your legislators and governors know that you stand behind it and ask them if they have a plan if they aren't going with Pickens.