Pickens first started rolling his idea to transition American transportation fuel to natural gas in 2008. Of course it got kicked to the side for a while when oil prices subsequently collapsed.
He is back again, and it is a bit hard to see why his idea doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Key points from the video:
- Pickens thinks money that is paid to OPEC often gets into the hands of terrorists.
- US natural gas is the lowest priced natural gas in the world. It is $4 per mcf in the States versus $10 per mcf in the Mid-East.
- He is looking for a government subsidy of $1 billion per year for five years to get the transition to natural gas up and running.
- His proposal includes moving government vehicle fleets to natural gas as well as 18 wheelers.
- Koch industries (private company) opposes the Pickens plan because subsidies make for an unfair playing field. Pickens calls this gobbly-gook as Koch takes subsidies for ethanol.
- Natural gas is $2 per gallon cheaper than diesel. Pickens thinks the market will cause truckers to move to natural gas eventually but that government subsidies will greatly speed up the process.
- Natural gas is cheaper, abundant and cleaner.
- Cheniere is now planning an LNG facility to export natural gas outside the States. Pickens said we will go down as the dumbest crowd in history if we end up exporting natural gas which we have lots of and is clean and cheap while we continue to import expensive, less clean oil that comes from countries that hate us.
He is back again, and it is a bit hard to see why his idea doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Key points from the video:
- Pickens thinks money that is paid to OPEC often gets into the hands of terrorists.
- US natural gas is the lowest priced natural gas in the world. It is $4 per mcf in the States versus $10 per mcf in the Mid-East.
- He is looking for a government subsidy of $1 billion per year for five years to get the transition to natural gas up and running.
- His proposal includes moving government vehicle fleets to natural gas as well as 18 wheelers.
- Koch industries (private company) opposes the Pickens plan because subsidies make for an unfair playing field. Pickens calls this gobbly-gook as Koch takes subsidies for ethanol.
- Natural gas is $2 per gallon cheaper than diesel. Pickens thinks the market will cause truckers to move to natural gas eventually but that government subsidies will greatly speed up the process.
- Natural gas is cheaper, abundant and cleaner.
- Cheniere is now planning an LNG facility to export natural gas outside the States. Pickens said we will go down as the dumbest crowd in history if we end up exporting natural gas which we have lots of and is clean and cheap while we continue to import expensive, less clean oil that comes from countries that hate us.
