Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is adding a new wrinkle to his push for US energy independence: monthly updates to remind Americans how much money they’re paying for foreign oil.
Pickens, a billionaire who is spending US$60 million on a high-profile campaign to boost the use of wind power and natural gas, said on Tuesday the updates would be a yardstick for measuring the incoming US administration’s progress on its goal of eliminating Middle East oil imports within a decade.
“You watch, we will elevate the interest in this,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
Pickens and environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr said oil-rich Middle East nations are using billions of US dollars to build schools, roads and airports while US infrastructure crumbles. They made the comments during a briefing at the Capitol.
Americans sent US$19.3 billion overseas to foreign governments for their oil last month, said Pickens, citing government figures.
“It is outrageous that we are sending billions of dollars — US$432,000 per minute — overseas to foreign countries while domestic programs at home remain severely underfunded,” said Pickens, who plans to highlight the monthly figures on his Web site.
Pickens met with the leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and several Congress members to promote his plan. He urged them to support a plan for converting 350,000 large commercial trucks such as 18-wheelers to natural gas.
“I think they are thinking about all of this very seriously,” he said.
Pickens last July unveiled a plan to cut oil dependency by increasing the use of wind power and natural gas. Pickens wants to erect wind turbines in the Midwest to generate electricity, replacing the 22 percent of US power produced from natural gas.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home