Convocation with T. Boone Pickens energizes crowd

T. Boone Pickens has a plan to end the United States’ dependency on foreign oil, and he shared it with more than 3,000 people at Missouri Western last fall at the 19^th Convocation on Critical Issues. He says the solution is natural gas.
“The United States today is fully capable of having enough oil available without using the 2 million barrels a day out of the Persian Gulf,” he said. “We are the biggest natural gas producer in the world.”
Boone’s plan involves drilling for natural gas in the United States, because it is “cheaper and cleaner than oil, domestic, and we have an abundance of it.”
One of the big issues for people is the method of drilling – hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Boone insisted that fracking is safe and does not damage the environment. He said fracking has been practiced since the 1950s, but he maintains that in the past 10 years, the technology of fracking has advanced so much that the natural gas can be drilled economically without harming the environment.
Although it would be expensive to convert vehicles to natural gas usage, Boone pointed out that several of the past wars the United States has been involved in were to protect its oil interests, and they were expensive. And, he said, we are spending a lot of money policing the Persian Gulf to protect the oil coming out of there, as well.
“We’ve got the energy here. We don’t have to be in the Persian Gulf,” Boone said. “I say get the hell out of there and come home.”
He criticized the current administration and administrations going back to the Richard Nixon era, for not making the United States independent of foreign oil. “Every one of them, I don’t care if they were Democrat or Republican, said, ‘Elect me and I’ll make us energy independent.’ We are the only country in the world without an energy plan.”
He got a good laugh from the audience when he explained that you can’t have a five-minute discussion about energy with anyone in Washington (D.C.) because “after three minutes, you’ve run out of everything they know.”
In 1997, Boone and Andrew Littlefair formed Pickens Fuel Corp. which went public in 2008 as Clean Energy Fuels Corp.
Boone, who graduated with a geology degree from Oklahoma State University, told the audience that 10 years ago, he had a hard time telling students who were studying geology or engineering that they were on the right career path.
But today is different. “Now there are great opportunities. Energy will be a big part of your lives and a bigger part of this country,” he told the audience. “We will go back to being an energy superpower within the next 10 years.”

Alum picks T. Boone’s plan for alternative fuels
     Hearing T. Boone Pickens speak at Missouri Western’s Convocation on Critical Issues last fall was not the first time Mark Watkins ’81, had heard him speak about the benefits of natural gas for transportation. In fact, hearing Boone speak four years ago led Mark to his current job.
Mark had been selling hydrogen generators for zero-emission fuel cell vehicles when he heard Boone speak about his “Pickens Plan,” which is using compressed natural gas for vehicles at an Alternative Fuels and Vehicles Conference in Las Vegas in 2008. After hearing his talk, Mark said he decided he wanted to work for Boone’s company, Clean Energy Fuels Corp. In 2010, he was hired by the company as a business development manager, marketing compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas refueling stations in the Northwest United States.
Mark said many people believe hydrogen is the ultimate zero-emission transportation fuel, but he believes the technology is 15-20 years away from being commercially viable. Since reforming natural gas is the cheapest way to produce hydrogen, natural gas fuel is the gateway to hydrogen fuel. So Boone’s company was a good fit for him.
Mark said more and more transportation companies are switching their gasoline or diesel vehicles to run on compressed natural gas. For example, Boone’s company, Clean Energy Corp., purchased a company that converts vehicles to run on natural gas, and over the past 15 years, it has converted 15,000 vehicles. However, Mark said the company is on target to convert 5,000 in 2012.
Just as Boone noted in his address at Missouri Western, Mark explained that using natural gas for transportation became a clear winner for transportation fuel when hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, methods improved in the past two years.
When he heard that Boone was going to speak at his alma mater, Mark traveled from his home in California for the presentation. “He is an amazing man with clear vision and determination to help our country become energy independent,” Mark said. “He is such an inspiration.”

Cutline 58: T. Boone Pickens visits with Marvin Shutler, from Kansas City, Mo., and Mark Watkins ’81. Mark works for Boone’s company, Clean Energy Corp., and Marvin is Mark’s father-in-law. Mark, a native of St. Joseph, traveled from California to hear Boone speak at Mark’s alma mater.