As I recall, the plan involves eliminating imported fuel, which would be oil. He stated wind in the mid-west should be able to power the country, forgetting that the southwest has lots of solar. He wants natural gas to power cars, or use electric energy for that.

Natural gas is not 100% clean, just cleaner. It appears to be more available than previously thought, as there have been new techniques developed for getting to gas in old fields. Most notably would be the fields reopening around Denver. What Mr Pickens failed to mention, is that recovery techniques are not 100% clean and the air in CO is being negatively impacted. The skies now hold the orange haze that used to be apparent in the LA basin.

The used to be in the LA basin is a nasty side comment. The LA basin no longer has the dominate orange tinted air, the ports have altered the color to areas of grey + orange. His plan is better than what we have, but heavily slanted to favor an industry which he profits from. Natural gas cars are not clean cars. Further, he does not address the issue of port operations or better energy plans for trains. His plan is far from a completely thought out package, if reduction of green house gases is supposed to be a goal.

The Lung Association correctly, is very concerned with the damage done by small particulate and ultra-fine particulate. These unseen particles of combustion damage heart, lungs, thicken blood and can even alter brain function: these comments are based on research from local universities. Natural gas is cleaner in this area than our current fuel system. Additionally, vehicles using natural gas appear to last longer than cars using gasoline, as there is less wear on some of the moving parts. In the meeting I attended, where Mr Pickens spoke, some current users of natural gas have the ability to fuel their vehicles at home. A cleaner option in the southwest, would be solar on the roof and plug-ins/extended range plug-in in the driveway. (H has possibilities, if they ever figure out how to clean up/speed up the conversion to make that an easy to access fuel.)

I like half of the Pickens Plan. The half where the wind turbines get built.

After that ... I recommend ditching the oil, the coal and the natural gas (except for emergency & peaking power).

Cars can and should run BEV.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Natural gas is an excellent choice for fleet and heavy duty vehicles. It's amazing folks on this site object to the Plan if focused on fleet vehicles.

1. Cheaper than oil on a fuel basis, almost entirely domestic, and abundant reserves due to deep shale deposits;
2. 20% lower greenhouse gas emissions, and 80%-90% lower criteria emissions, particularly when spiked with hydrogen, reducing health care costs and lung cancer rates in congested urban areas.
3. Greenhouse gas emissions drop by 90% relative to diesel and/or gasoline when potentially abundant Biogas from a variety of biomass sources is added seamlessly to a national transmission and distribution network;
4. Refueling infrastructure is affordable for Fleets, and there is no need to build a new pipeline network similar to Ethanol or congest highways and rail with fuel transport;
5. HEVs and BEV may be the way to go for LDVs, but hauling around 400 pound batteries takes a lot of energy regardless of the source, and is not practical for long range heavy duty vehicles that can burn LNG or CNG;

Simply converting the 800,000 North American bus fleet to CNG, CNG/electric hybrid would help significantly. With high cycle batteries like NanoSafe, and CNG - hybrid buses can reduce fossil fuel use by nearly two thirds.

T Boone needs to understand his profit position with NG hurts his credibility. The wind component is a good one - if he can emphasize the fleet application better - the whole deal will begin to smell better.