Pickens and the Plan

Is anyone else getting annoyed seeing T. Boone Pickens on television telling everyone that time is running out and he knows how to buy time? Frankly, I'm ready to pop a rivet.

And, since when does T. Boone Pickens need the support of the American public to implement one of his business ideas? Well, the answer is, he doesn't need public support, he needs public money and he's willing to fudge, or at least fuzzy-up, the facts to get it.

Consider these items from the Pickens Plan.

He says that today the U.S. imports 70% of our oil. That's not true. U.S. net petroleum imports for the first seven months of 2008 have averaged less than 57%.

Pickens indicates that the U.S. accounts for 25% of the world's oil demand but fails to indicate that the U.S. provides 26% of global economic output.

Pickens asserts that the U.S. transfers $700 billion in wealth out of the country every year but ignores the fact that we receive $700 billion worth of oil in return. How is that a transfer of wealth? It's called trade.

According to economist Raymond Keating of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, what Pickens wants is actually massive government intrusion so his wind energy can replace natural gas for electricity production and his natural gas can then replace gasoline for trucks and automobiles.

Unfortunately, getting in the way of the Pickens Plan is a pesky entity called free market capitalism and the simple fact that wind power has not yet proved itself to be commercially competitive. Pickens needs government mandates for his plan to have a chance.

So, fellow taxpayers, remember, when Pickens says he wants to buy time, he wants to do it with our money -- lots of our money.

Lastly, for a guy who can read charts of seismic anomalies to pinpoint exactly where gas and oil are, Pickens sure seems to be deaf to the rumblings from Congressional Democrats wanting to nationalize the oil industry. He seems to be totally unaware of the socialists slithering around Congress. Hell, Obama is even quoting Pickens, considering him as an ally in the environmental hope and change scheme. I'd suggest that a prudent businessman wouldn't risk his bread and butter on hope and change.