Every since I sat in those long lines back during the oil embargo, I knew there would be a time when our nation would be facing an oil crisis. A crisis that would kick us right in the butt. A crisis that if we don’t start to respond soon will either put is into a depression or force us into a war. War?  That’s right. If our nation faces economic extinction I have no doubt that we will take the oil by force.

Now along comes Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens who is about to start kicking some rear ends in Washington. A kick that is desparately needed. You see we have completely ignored our situation spending some $700  Billion a year to import oil. There is little doubt in my mind that spending this much to fuel our economy is eventually going to bankrupt us. So what does Mr. Pickens propose?

Well according to this USA Today article it states:

Today, Pickens will take the wraps off what he’s calling the Pickens Plan for cutting the USA’s demand for foreign oil by more than a third in less than a decade. To promote it, he is bankrolling what his aides say will be the biggest public policy ad campaign ever. The website, www.pickensplan.com, goes live today.

Jay Rosser, Pickens’ ever-present public relations man, promises that Pickens’ face will be seen on Americans’ televisions this fall almost as frequently as John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s.

“Neither presidential candidate is talking about solving the oil problem. So we’re going to make ‘em talk about it,” Pickens says.

“Nixon said in 1970 that we were importing 20% of our oil and that by 1980 it would be 0%. That didn’t happen,” Pickens says. “It went to 42% in 1991 with the Gulf War. It’s just under 70% now. Where do you think we’re going to be in 10 years when our economy is busted and we’re importing 80% of our oil?”

Finding solutions to other major issues, including health care, are important, he concedes. But “If you don’t solve the energy problem, it’s going to break us before we even get to solving health care and some of these other important issues.” And it has to be done with the same sense of urgency that President Eisenhower had when he pushed the rapid development of the interstate highway system during the Cold War.

Of course, Pickens also has a particular solution in mind.

Wind. And natural gas.

Getting lots more electricity with wind is only half of the Pickens Plan. Increasing wind-power production by itself won’t reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil because most of that oil is consumed as gasoline.

The key, Pickens says, is that wind energy can be used as a substitute for natural gas now burned to generate electricity. That, in turn, will make far more natural gas available for use as a transportation fuel. Pickens’ plan is to produce enough wind power within 10 years to divert 20% of the natural gas now used to fuel power plants for use in cars and trucks. That’s much more aggressive a growth plan for the development of wind energy than envisioned by the Depart of Energy, which doesn’t expect the USA to be getting 20% of its total energy needs from wind until at least 2030.

Pickens foresees as many as a third of the vehicles running on natural gas within only a few years. Julius Pretterebner, director of the Global Oil Group at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, says getting 15% to 20% of the USA’s cars to run on natural gas — in some cases, in mixtures with other fuels in dual-fuel vehicles — by 2020 would be an outstanding achievement, and doing that will require federal support to expand the necessary infrastructure.

I saw the first of Mr Pickens ads this morning on CNN. Hopefully his other ads which will start appearing soon and will in fact get all of us, including the presidential candidates, talking and addressing this problem. It is time to wake up America. If we don’t put pressure on our political candidates and those already in Congress, these yahoo’s will not take any action on their own.

But what do you think? Is it time for America to take serious the oil crisis? Is it time for our leaders to get off their butts and start to work on a solution? Or are you just tickle pink with the way we are heading?

Comments welcome.

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