Mike Thaman, chairman and CEO of Owens Corning, signed the Pickens Plan on behalf of Owens Corning to promote domestic energy resources and energy efficiency, Dec. 15, at the Owens Corning World Headquarters in downtown Toledo.

Pickens

T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman of BP Capital Commodity Fund and the BP Capital Equity Fund, attended the event. Pickens started the Pickens Plan in July 2008 by investing more than $50 million to promote it.

Thaman spoke with Pickens and convinced him to add energy efficiency in buildings, Thaman said during his speech. Owens Corning creates glass fiber insulation and therefore works directly with energy efficiency in buildings, he said.

When Pickens presented his plan to congress he basically said, “We’re in a hole and we have to start getting out of it,” Thaman said. Thaman told Pickens that “We need to stop digging the hole” meaning that the country needs to be efficient with the energy it has, Thaman said.

After his introduction by Thaman, Pickens, who has worked in the oil business for almost 60 years, took the stage to an audience of mostly Owens Corning employees and their clients.

He spoke of the country’s need to be independent of foreign energy, stressing that the United States imports almost 70 percent of its oil. Pickens also noted that although many presidents beginning with Richard Nixon in the 1970s have said, “Elect me president and we will be energy independent” and this has not happened. The opposite has occurred, with importation increasing from 24 percent in 1970 during the Nixon era to almost 70 percent today, Pickens said.

The Pickens Plan advocates the use of natural gas as a “bridge fuel” for vehicles, to stop Americans from using oil until a renewable resource is found, Pickens said.

In the world there are 8.5 million vehicles that are powered by natural gas, and only 142,000 of those vehicles are in the U.S., Pickens said.

The plan also pushes using wind power. According to the Pickens Plan Web site, 20 percent of the nation’s electricity could come from wind.

“I can revitalize rural America (because wind power would create millions of jobs)” Pickens said.

Pickens does not think that his plan will cost much money because the plan will bring back the $700 billion that is projected to be sent out this year alone, he said.

Thaman and Pickens encouraged others to sign the pledge on the Pickens Plan Web site. According to the website, Pickens and his supporters want to have an Energy Independence Plan to be enacted within the first 100 days of President Elect, Barack Obama’s administration.

“This problem has to be solved or we’re going to find ourselves in a disaster,” Pickens said.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Breaking News, Community.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.