Pickens pushes natural gas after oil spill (Dallas)

Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens is warning Americans that the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may make the country even more dependent on foreign oil.

In a statement Tuesday, he said, “In the wake of the tragic Gulf Coast oil spill, we need to recognize that any U.S. reserves lost will invariably increase our foreign oil dependency, further jeopardizing our national and economic security.”

Boone cited the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, which shows the country imported 61 percent of its oil, or 374 million barrels in May. This means the U.S. spent approximately $27.5 billion to buy foreign oil, Pickens said.

He added, “Through the first five months of 2010, the U.S. spent more than $50 billion more on foreign oil than we spent over the same period in 2009. We’re importing more than 13 million barrels of oil per day, far ahead of the world’s next largest importer, China, at five million per day, and they have spent more than $200 billion in recent months securing all the oil they can get their hands on globally.”

Pickens said there is currently bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate that would replace the foreign oil, diesel and gasoline used by heavy transportation fleets with natural gas.

Read the full post in the Dallas Business Journal.