Sage Against The Machine

T. Boone Pickens at the National Press Club

I couldn’t rip myself away from the screen as I watched T. Boone Pickens at the National Press Club.

Here are some quotes from that speech that stood out to me:

  • I don’t care who you meet, you’ll never meet someone who’s drilled more dry holes than me.
  • Anything is better than foreign oil for energy.
  • Anything American, I’m for. I’m against foreign oil.
  • America could be revitalized just by managing our energy properly.

Here are some facts he stated:

4 barrels of oil = 1 barrel of diesel.
4 barrels of oil = 2.5 barrels of gasoline.

85 million barrels of oil every day of world production. America uses 21 million barrels of that production every day. That’s 25% of all the oil used every day. America is 4% of the world population. America has 3% of the oil reserves in the world. Oil production peaked in 1970 in the U.S.

The Alaskan pipeline currently produces 1 million barrels a day. The pipe is capable of delivering 2 million barrels a day. There won’t be another oil pipeline built. There will, however, be a natural gas pipeline built. Drilling on the west and east coast will produce a maximum of another 1 million barrels a day.