{"id":3470,"date":"2008-09-08T09:07:28","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T15:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3470"},"modified":"2008-09-08T09:07:28","modified_gmt":"2008-09-08T15:07:28","slug":"t-boone-pickens-this-is-one-emergency-we-cant-drill-our-way-out-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/t-boone-pickens-this-is-one-emergency-we-cant-drill-our-way-out-of\/","title":{"rendered":"T. Boone Pickens: Oil Dependence ‘Is One Emergency We Can’t Drill Our Way Out Of’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>T. Boone Pickens, billionaire Texas oil man, has been pushing his come-to-Jesus revelations in television — and YouTube — commericals <\/a>lately. Which is to say, he’s figured out there’s money to be made, and an energy independence to be had, in alternative energies.<\/p>\n

Some may question Pickens’ motivations and his methods of doing business with the Pickens Plan<\/a>. I admit I could learn more about those aspects of Pickens. But as I do so, I’m writing now of my early impressions of the man, and why I am glad to see his face on T.V.<\/p>\n

Nothing is more precious to general America than money. So money, profits, wealth accumulation, etc. has to be part of the process of converting people from any one way of life to any other way of life. Sense and science just aren’t enough for a significant, influential, voting portion of the public.<\/p>\n

T. Boone Pickens no doubt does things for the sake of big dollars. And he will find a business model that makes alternative energies<\/a> profitable and, therefore, worth considering to many others who don’t give much of a damn about the Earth, but will help save it for the bucks involved.<\/p>\n

So I think it’s beneficial in the big picture to have an oil man rubbing against the oil industry’s grain a bit to tout alternative energies as the future, and lead us out of this oil dependence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or, as New York Times<\/em> columnist Thomas L. Friedman said on “Meet the Press” this past Sunday, those who were chanting “Drill, baby, drill!” at last week’s Republican National Convention are to the energy future<\/a> as a group would have been, when facing the advent of computers and the Internet, if it were chanting “IBM Selectric Typewriters! IBM Selectric Typewriters!”<\/p>\n

His point, of course, is that past technologies just don’t make sense in the evolving present and future.<\/p>\n

But back to T. Boone Pickens…<\/strong><\/p>\n

In one of the Pickens Plan commercials, Pickens narrates, then introduces himself as a man with a plan:<\/p>\n