National Press Club: Renewable and Alternative Energy

Mark Hamrick, National Press Club President kicks off. Introduces guests, among these are T. Boone Pickens and his wife and Ted Turner. Turner has a stake in First Solar. Largest private landholder in USA. For Pickens, giving update on Pickens Plan. Windfarm postponed. Wrote two books. Both are interested in sports.

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Show was on April 19th, so this is a month old.

Turner starts off with a statement. Speaks about getting rid of nukes (weapons). Get rid of them all, he says. Second challenge is growth in population, he says. Need family planning, he says. Third: environment issue, energy is the most important. Oceans collapsing from overfishing, land from overfarming. Cutting back on population growth. Finally, clean renewable energy. Favors gas is good as bridge fuel. Concern about "fracking". Time to move on to renewables. Need a modern system he says. "Do it, or die."

Pickens steps up. No energy plan. We use more fuel than everybody. 25% of all oil used every day, but only 4% population. No plan because of cheap oil. Obvious bipartisan effort to do nothing. In 10 years, 300 dollar oil. Importing 75% of our oil in 10 years, running out of oil. World can't produce enough to meet demand. But we have the resources to meet demand. But wind and solar doesn't replace transportation fuels. 2/3 of our deficit is from oil. Nobody asks question about plan to reduce to fix this.

Turner says wind and solar already here. Pickens says solar is most expensive. Gas is cheapest of the fossil fuels. Wind can't compete against gas, gas prices have dropped. Gas is cheaper and cleaner than diesel. Need President to say "this is where we are going."

How to refuel trucks? Infrastructure, he answers. Need to go with what works. One diesel is hundred times more polluting than cars. Compared to Ford and Model T. Will cut OPEC imports in half, he claims.

Turner says get out of these wars. Questions from audience.

Keeps talking about cheap oil that ain't cheap these days. Turner says Obama should have tackled energy first. [I agree, but not with his program.]

Exxon is international, not domestic. Don't work for America, says Pickens. Pickens says he believes in climate change. I'm categorizing this as politics because this seems to be leftward leaning.

Session will last about an hour with a question and answer session.