T. Boone Pickens has a federal subsidy beef with the Koch brothers over natural gas, ethanol

Since the summer, natural gas supporter T. Boone Pickens (pictured) has been in an energy fight with the Koch brothers. Think of it as a battle of the conservative billionaires to see who can get more money from the federal government.

According to the Des Moines Register, Pickens has been working to encourage governmental support for natural gas vehicles. No surprise there, since Pickens believes it was given to us by God himself. The Koch brothers, on the other hand, have their hands out for a lot of ethanol subsidies even though they are often called Libertarian (or at the very least, deeply conservative). Pickens reportedly said recently that:

Koch Industries imports 61,000 barrels of OPEC oil a day to their Corpus Christi refinery. They're the third largest recipient of subsidies for ethanol, they're in the chemical business and the fertilizer business. So everything I do could affect them in some way. They're against me. I know Charles and David Koch. I asked them to talk to me about this subject; they would not do it. They would not return my phone calls. When I was one of their biggest customers in 2005, I heard from them and was entertained in their home in Wichita, but now (they) don't want to talk to me about it. They've gone and tried to peel off all the co-sponsors of the bill that they can. While they knocked out 14 I was getting 16. They spend a lot of money to do this. They're working for the Kochs, I'm working for America. I want an energy plan for America, they want an energy plan for the Koch's.

This past May, Charles Koch wrote an op-ed that claimed that Picken's call for natural gas to get subsidies "well-intentioned but misguided" even as it said that Kock didn't even want the ethanol subsidies he was collecting: "Because ethanol use is mandated, we were compelled to be in that business. We still oppose ethanol subsidies and mandates even though some of our businesses would benefit from them." A spokesman for the Koch brothers wrote to Congress in June that "We do not believe government should be picking 'winners and losers' in the marketplace." Well, of course you don't. Not once you're already winning.



Source: Autoblog Green

Update on NAT GAS Act From T. Boone Pickens w/VIDEO

Here is an encouraging e-mail I received from Boone Pickens.

Army:

The momentum to get the NAT GAS Act passed in Congress is growing. H.R. 1380 was introduced a week ago with less than 60 co-sponsors. As of today, that number has jumped to 172 co-sponsors (see full list here).

In an era of hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill, this bipartisan support shows how important members of Congress believe it is to cut our dependence on OPEC oil. Click below to watch the video from our recent "NGVs Take the Hill" event in Washington, DC which featured several of the H.R. 1380 cosponsors.

Also, there have been two major articles recently that I want to point out to you. On the Forbes Magazine website, Rich Karlgaard wrote about having interviewed me before live audiences in the San Francisco Bay area. He started his report by saying there was "an underlying tension" of me "trying to convince earnest San Francisco Bay Area liberals about the virtues of natural gas. How did Pickens do in front of a liberal, vaguely hostile audience? Surprisingly well."

To read the entire post on Forbes.com, click here.

The New York Times also published an op-ed by highly respected writer, Joe Nocera, about the need to pass the NAT GAS Act, which Nocera wrote, "people in the know call it the Boone Pickens bill."

Summarizing H.R. 1380, Nocera writes:

"The Pickens bill creates tax incentives - $1 billion a year for five years - to encourage manufacturers to begin building heavy-duty trucks that will be powered by natural gas instead of diesel. It also gives some tax incentives to truck-stop owners who install natural gas filling stations to help create the infrastructure."

These are all very good - and very important - developments.

- Boone

P.S. On Tuesday, April 19, Ted Turner and I will discuss American energy policy during a joint luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The event will take place starting at 1:00 pm ET and you will be able to watch it online here: http://press.org/events/npc-luncheon-ted-turner-and-t-boone-pickens

Natural Gas Vehicle Legislation and The Pickens Plan Push

The Phill Natural Gas Home Refueling Unit











T. Boone Pickens is tirelessly stumping for the United States to promote natural gas as an alternate to the billions of barrels of oil that we import and we support him wholeheartedly. Congress needs to get behind this endeavor and help the US expand its natural gas infrastructure, as well as encourage automakers to provide the vehicles. There are Chevy Cavaliers on the road that can run on both natural gas and regular gasoline, but you can't buy one in the showrooms. We need alternate energy choices for our vehicles sooner rather than later. Natural gas is an excellent choice for the near term future.

This is an excerpt from the recent Picken's Plan e-mail:

Last week the Western Governors' Association (WGA)—a non-partisan organization of 22 governors representing 19 U.S. states and 3 U.S. Territories—called upon Congress to make it a priority to pass legislation that would include incentives for the development and use of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) and NGV infrastructure. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed by WGA's chairman and vice chairman, Govs. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) and C.L. "Butch" Otter (R-ID), they wrote:
	“In addition to providing critical support for job growth in America, further development of NGVs and NGV infrastructure will help reduce our national trade deficit and dependence on oil from unstable and unfriendly regimes. Like members of Congress, we are concerned about how the staggering trade deficits impact America’s economic growth and prosperity, and a large portion of our nation’s trade deficit is attributable directly to the importation of oil. Every day the United States spends billions of dollars overseas in the form of oil payments that could be spent here, in America, employing our citizens and boosting the health of our economy. America's continued dependence on foreign oil represents a clear threat to our economic health and security.”
I couldn’t agree more. We need to act now.

Natural Gas Act of 2009 Pickens Plan Video

A video from the Pickens Plan website highlighting the push for the Natural Gas Act of 2009.