Page 28 - ATR 2 2012 web 2

Setting America Free

But T. Boone Pickens needs trucking to make it happen

He needs one major industry part- can save a dollar and a half a gallon.
By lane kidd ner—the trucking industry—to get the It doesn’t take but about a second for
Executive Editor nation halfway there. “We produce them to see that’s a hundred and fifty
eight million barrels of oil a day here million dollars.”
T. Boone Pickens admits he finds in the U.S. and we import 12 million That’s well and good but Pickens
himself on a mission like no other in barrels of oil a day of which five million acknowledges one big hurdle is that
his more than 60-year business career. comes from OPEC,” Boone explains. natural gas vehicles (NGV) are
And at 83 years old, the legendary oil “Trucking consumes half of the five more expensive than diesel trucks.
man, landowner and business icon says million barrels we buy from OPEC each “Kevin Knight [chairman of Knight
he is in a bit of a hurry to get it done. day,” he answers. So Pickens is meeting Transportation] told me one day,
What’s at stake Pickens says is with business owners and executives, ‘Boone, I like this plan but don’t make
whether the United States will regain con- with the goal of convincing the truck- us pay to be patriotic’ and I told him
trol of the world’s wealth and economic ing industry to convert its 8.5 million that’s why I’m working with President
power, something that would “change the Class 6, 7 and 8 tractors from diesel Obama to get a tax credit.”
dynamics of the world,” he says. fuel to natural gas. And Pickens is persuasive. After
At the heart of his mission is free- From a business viewpoint, Pickens touring a Freightliner factory, President
ing the United States from its depen- says it’s a no brainer. They will reap an Obama announced in March that he
dence on foreign oil, particularly oil immediate return on their investment will push Congress to approve tax cred-
controlled by OPEC, a weak spot that he since natural gas is at least $1.50 per its equal to half of the added cost of
believes is sapping the nation’s wealth gallon cheaper. “I’ve talked to trucking alternatively powered commercial vehi-
and productivity. And he says that to guys,” Pickens says, “whose companies cles. Freightliner officials said a Class
rid the U.S. of foreign oil could be easier consume 100 million gallons of fuel a 8 tractor powered by compressed natu-
than people think. year and they see very quickly how they ral gas (CNG) currently costs about



“And President Obama asked me

‘do I say anything about energy

that makes you uncomfortable?’”

Photography by Jon d. Kennedy

28 ArkAnSAS trucking report | issue 2 2012