We need a massive energy-independence effort now

By Heath Haussamen

It’s no secret that, for two or three decades, the powers-that-be in America have ignored the looming energy crisis. The almighty dollar and a political system that encourages only short-term thinking have pushed common sense aside.

As a result, the emergency that could have been avoided has arrived. Our dependence on foreign oil is wreaking havoc on Americans’ pocketbooks. Because some of the money we’re spending goes to nations that sponsor terror, our oil addiction is helping sponsor terrorism. And conflicts we’re fighting to protect “American interests” — including foreign oil — from that terrorism are contributing to the spread of anti-American sentiment around the globe.

We’ve dug ourselves a deep hole, and the trouble is compounded by our ailing health care system, our crumbling infrastructure, the home-mortgage and other lending predicaments, a broken immigration system and other problems. Because it’s an election year, Washington isn’t doing enough to begin the long process of digging us out of the energy crisis — or any other problem. Many, including me, have doubts about whether an overly partisan political system even has the capacity any longer to successfully embark on a major initiative on the scale of the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s, which sent astronauts to the moon.

But an Apollo-like program is what we need to solve the energy crisis, which is one of the most serious threats America has faced in decades.

Enter T. Boone Pickens, an oilman who has the wisdom to understand that we can’t drill our way out of this problem, the guts to stick his neck out and the money to ensure his message is heard.

Pickens has unveiled a $58 million media campaign to promote the Pickens Plan to replace the energy in America’s power grid that comes from domestic natural gas with wind power so the natural gas can be instead used in automobiles. That, he says, will cut the nation’s dependence on foreign oil by more than a third.

In addition to the money he’s spending on the media campaign, Pickens is backing up his words with plans to build the largest wind farm in the world in Texas. It’s not a political ploy. Pickens is staying out of the presidential race and simply lobbying for the next president and Congress to do something drastic, saying the massive shift that could cut our spending on foreign oil from $700 million to $400 million each year could happen in less than a decade if all work together.

Pickens’ action is a breath of fresh air in the midst of an election season in which congressional Democrats and Republicans are busy debating the merits of two ideas that won’t solve the energy crisis — increased drilling and more regulation of speculation.

Washington would like to find a way to soothe the fears of Americans in the short term. The careers of many politicians may depend on that. However, like it or not, it’s going to take years, or maybe even decades, to climb out of the hole we’ve dug ourselves. The Pickens Plan alone won’t solve the energy crisis. But if a handful of other ultra-rich Americans joined Pickens in pursuing radical ideas with their wealth, and the American public pushed Washington to get on board and help, we might — just might — survive the energy crisis of the 21st Century.

The longer we delay the implementation of an Apollo-like program, the more difficult it will be to break our addition to foreign oil and the more uncertain the road ahead will become. We should have done this in the 1970s. We have to do this now.