TED Talk: T. Boone Pickens

  "In the history of America, we've never had an energy plan. We don't even realize the resources that we have available to us." The US consumes 25% of the world's oil -- but as energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens points out onstage, the country has no energy policy to prepare for the inevitable. Is alternative energy our bridge to an oil-free future? After losing $150 million investing in wind energy, Pickens suggests it isn't, not yet. What might get us there? Natural gas. "The Saudis can produce the oil for five dollars a barrel. That has nothing to do with [oil prices]." A legendary oil and gas entrepreneur, T. Boone Pickens is now on a mission to enhance U.S. energy policies to lessen the nation’s dependence on OPEC oil. "[Dependency on OPEC] is the greatest transfer of wealth from one group to another in the history of mankind." T. Boone Pickens views America's dependence on OPEC oil as the greatest threat to the country's national security and economic well-being. In developing The Pickens Plan for America’s energy future, he's advocating for domestic alternatives and even greater new technologies. Pickens grew from humble beginnings in Depression-era Holdenville, Oklahoma, to be one of the nation’s most successful oil and gas entrepreneurs, and has been uncannily accurate in predicting oil and gas prices (CNBC coined him the "Oracle of Oil") -- and he's established a very successful energy-oriented investment fund. Pickens is also an innovative, committed philanthropist who has donated nearly $1 billion to charity.