Obama endorses Pickens plan for natural gas vehicles

T. Boone Pickens has spent much of the past three years campaigning for a single candidate: natural gas.

Last week, Pickens scored his biggest endorsement yet, when President Barack Obama expressed support for his idea to convert the country’s heavy-duty vehicles to run on natural gas instead of diesel.

In a speech at Georgetown University, Obama highlighted concerns about pollution from natural gas drilling, but said the domestic fuel could help to achieve a one-third reduction of imported oil over the next decade.

“The potential for natural gas is enormous,” Obama said. “Last year, more than 150 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle produced legislation providing incentives to use clean-burning natural gas in our vehicles instead of oil. And — and that’s a big deal.”

Passing that legislation through the House and Senate would be a political coup for Pickens, who has spent lavishly to promote his campaign through advertising, speeches and lobbying.

It also would boost demand for natural gas, a fuel that America — and, particularly, Texas — has in spades. The Energy Information Administration recently said the U.S. has enough natural gas to supply its needs for 110 years.

Pickens’ own fortune is tied up in natural gas — and he would benefit if the legislation passes. Pickens is the largest shareholder in Clean Energy Fuels, a California company that owns and operates 200 natural gas refueling stations across the country. Clean Energy also owns Dallas-based BAF Technologies Inc., a company that converts vehicles to run on natural gas.

Pickens owns mineral rights on 156,000 acres in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and 30,000 acres in Oklahoma and Kansas, he told reporters Wednesday.

The $5 billion legislation, known as the NAT GAS Act, would provide subsidies to cover much of the cost difference between a natural gas-powered truck and one that runs on diesel fuel. It also would increase the federal tax credit for owners of refueling stations that sell compressed and liquefied natural gas.

Pickens doesn’t deny his financial interest in boosting natural gas use. But he says his plan is the only immediate way to reduce oil imports from the Middle East.

“I haven’t made any money off of any of this yet,” Pickens said.

Pickens said an updated version of the NAT GAS Act would be introduced next week by two Republicans and two Democrats in the House. The bill had 155 co-sponsors last year, including many Democrats.

He cheered Obama’s endorsement, and said he wasn’t disappointed that the president expressed concern about the potential environmental impact of gas drilling. That concern is widespread in the Northeast, where Texas companies are extracting gas from a gigantic shale formation that covers several states.

The Environmental Protection Agency is studying whether a common gas-drilling method, known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could contaminate underground water supplies. Obama said Energy Secretary Steven Chu would work with industry “to improve the safety of this process.”

“I think the fracking issue will clear up on investigation,” Pickens said. “Let’s just let it unfold. I feel pretty comfortable where we are.”