Once More, with Feeling!

Excellent interview with Boone Pickens on EVWorld from earlier this month. I highlight select pieces, but it's worth reading the entire article.


EVWorld: Straight Talk from T. Boone Pickens.

Quotes:

"You take 30 billion barrels out of the world's reserve base and we have not replaced 30 billion barrels since 1985. You're talking about twenty years. You keep drawing down on the world reserve base... and it is happening because you can't find big oil fields anymore. They're just not out there to find."

....


No one has ever asked why we [Americans] use five times as much oil as the rest of the world, he pointed out. "That question is going to be asked more and more. There's no question, but we are going to have to reduce our energy [consumption]."

Queried by Kleindienst what he would do if he were the next energy secretary -- and Pickens joked that he'd insist on being called 'czar' -- he replied that the country is going to need every renewable energy source it can muster, including wind power, which while he's not a fan of the big turbines for esthetic reasons, he is now re-invested in it after an earlier abortive venture in the business.

"Wind is going to be a big deal," he commented. "You're going to have solar, you're going to have wind. You're going to have biodiesel. You name it, you've got it," he drawled. He also said that as energy 'czar' he'd raise the price of gasoline, working to establish a common, worldwide price for gasoline, just as there is a largely global price of oil. He said people who want their SUVs will be able to have them, but it's going to cost a lot to run them.

....

In discussing how the conference attendees can help influence Congress, Pickens responded, "I can tell you that the problems are going to come so fast and the price of gasoline is going to go up so fast here within the next twelve months, they are going to start catching on real quick that you're going to have to do everything you can to cover the base, and you're also going to realize that the supply [of oil] is so tight...

"Matt Simmons, a very, very bright guy that knows a lot more about this business than I do, and Matt Simmons last week sent me an.. email that said the [petroleum supply] system is so tight now. He said that storage is down... inventories around the world are coming down so fast now... everything is getting so tight... that you're going to see oil priced above $80 a barrel [this year]. And he said that if you had some kind of hiccup in the system it could go to $100 faster than a hot knife through butter.

"And I believe that and I think that when that happens, this thing is going to get so serious so fast that you're going to get the help out of Washington. You're going to have these politicians running for president, they're going to start talking about, 'We're going to have to do this, this and this, and all of it is going to help us, us, us in this room. I really believe that's going to happen."