$300 Oil Unless U.S. Cuts Import Need

Pickens: $300 Oil Unless U.S. Cuts Import Need

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:54 PM


WASHINGTON -- Oil prices will hit $300 a barrel in 10 years if the United States fails to reduce its dependence on foreign imports, billionaire oil investor T. Boone Pickens said on Tuesday.


The United States imports nearly 70 percent of its oil now and Pickens said the world's top petroleum-consuming nation would import 80 percent in a decade if it does not aggressively tap its own natural gas and renewable resources.


"If we continue to drift, oil will hit $300 a barrel in 10 years," Pickens said during testimony at a Senate hearing.


Pickens who heads the hedge fund BP Capital, is building a 4,000 megawatt, $10 billion wind farm in Northern Texas that should start generating power in 2011.


He has been touring the country with a plan to cut oil imports by switching the use of domestic natural gas from firing power plants to powering cars. He hopes the federal government and private investors will build a massive wind farm system in the middle of the country from Mexico to Canada to replace the natural gas that would be used for transport.


There are some 8 million vehicles in the world that run on natural gas, but only about 140,000 of them in the United States, said Pickens, adding that he owns a Honda car that runs on natural gas he taps from his home line.


House Democrats were to hold a closed door caucus meeting with Pickens on Tuesday evening to discuss his plan to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.


Pickens, a lifelong Republican, said he is not favoring either party in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, but will vote for the candidate with the best energy plan.