Pickens On Decline In Price Of Oil: "It'll Go Up Again"

DENVER -- DNC attendees were treated to a strange sight this afternoon -- Texas oilman (and major GOP donor) T. Boone Pickens sharing a stage with Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope and Center for American Progress president John Podesta.

The event was staged earlier today at The Big Tent, the eco-friendly makeshift structure located near the Pepsi Center that serves as a gathering place for bloggers and new media journalists. Pickens' appearances here are part of his effort to build support for his ambitious "Pickens Plan," which seeks to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil through investments in wind power, solar power and natural gas.

Speaking in his folksy Texas drawl, Pickens emphasized that he was not pushing his plan in order to enrich himself.

"I'm not doing this to make money," Pickens said. "Whatever I make from this will go to my estate, and all of my estate will go to charity when I go."

Pickens emphasized the non-partisan nature of his effort, noting that he has met with John McCain and Barack Obama.

"I'm totally non-partisan on this," he declared, drawing applause from the audience. "It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with America."

Pickens said America's addiction to foreign oil puts a strain on the economy. He urged audience members not to be fooled by the recent decline in the price of oil, saying, "It'll go back up again."

He also predicted that "in two or three years, we're going to be at $200 a barrel -- maybe even $300 a barrel for oil." After describing his proposal to build thousands of wind turbines and connect them to the electric grid, Pickens expounded on the more controversial aspect of his plan: his proposal to power vehicles with natural gas instead of imported gasoline and diesel fuels.

"The only thing we have in this country in abundance that can replace foreign oil is natural gas," said Pickens. "It's cleaner, it's cheaper, it's abundant, and it's ours."

Pope opened his remarks by acknowledging that he and Pickens made for strange bedfellows.

"It is not a good sign that Boone Pickens, John Podesta, and I are onstage together today," Pope said. "If our political system were even vaguely functional, anything that we agree on would have happened long ago."

Pope explained the three ways in which he would like to go even further than Pickens' plan: (1.) to "re-power America" by generating electricity from renewable energies instead of fossil fuels; (2.) to "re-fuel America" by giving Americans more options at the pump (such as ethanol fuel and natural gas), and (3.) to "re-build America" by retrofitting buildings in order to make them more energy-efficient.

But the star of the show was clearly Pickens. While the Swift Boat financier made for an unlikely guest at this gathering of Democrats, he made a number of statements which probably sounded sweet to progressives. He departed from the current GOP talking points on energy when he said, "You can't drill your way out of this. There's not enough oil and gas out there." Pickens also said that he doesn't believe the Energy Information Administration's estimates about the amount of oil in the Outer Continental Shelf and in ANWR, saying that those protected areas probably contain 5% of the oil that the EIA says they do.

Still, Pickens defended oil companies against the charge that they were manipulating the market in order to maximize their profits. "Don't pan the oil companies," Pickens told the audience. "They're not as bad as everybody thinks."

Toward the end of the discussion, Pickens deflected Podesta's question about how he reconciled his support of renewable energies with his campaign contributions to politicians like OK Sen. James Inhofe. The liberal bloggers in the audience undoubtedly would have liked to ask Pickens some follow-up questions, as many have been critical of both his energy plan and his political contributions. But to their dismay, Pickens left without taking questions.

(IAN FAERSTEIN)