Sept 24/10 - Pt 2: T. Boone Pickens

PART TWO

T. Boone Pickens

We started this segment with a clip from President Barack Obama speaking in June, in his first address from the Oval Office. He was speaking in the wake of the BP oil spill. And he took the opportunity to remind Americans about the precariousness of their energy future ... from a security standpoint and an environmental one. Then, he challenged the country to kick its collective oil habit.

That's hardly the kind of talk you want to hear if you've made your career selling oil ... Unless, of course, you're T. Boone Pickens. He's a Texas oil tycoon and a legendary corporate raider. He built a three-Billion-dollar fortune in the oil industry. He also helped bury John Kerry's Presidential aspirations by funding the infamous Swift Boat ads. And Democratic Senate Leader Harry Read says he used to think of T. Boone Pickens as his "mortal enemy."

But in recent times, T. Boone Pickens is preaching a very different message ... pushing a move away from oil dependence. The Pickens Plan calls for the use of more natural gas to cushion the transition from oil to alternate energy sources. T. Boone Pickens was in Calgary this week, talking to business leaders there about his plan and that's where we reached him.

Articles: The Pickens Profile You Haven't Read / U.S. largest oil importer, Pickens says / No Wind, Plenty of Gas in Updated Pickens Plan / U.S. Speaker calls for cut in oil imports / Oil sands on track to be biggest source of U.S. oil imports / Pickens says Canadians shouldn't worry about plan to wean U.S. off foreign oil