Since T. Boone Pickens unveiled his sweeping plan Tuesday designed to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, more than 170,000 people have visited his website to learn more about the proposal and some are encouraging him to enter politics and become the nation’s energy czar, he said Thursday.

The legendary oilman traveled to Denver to address the Rocky Mountain Energy Epicenter, which is sponsored by the Colorado Oil & Gas Association and the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Flanked by staff, Pickens spent nearly an hour answering questions about the Pickens Plan, which he introduced earlier this week in New York City (see Daily GPI, July 9). The response to his energy proposal has been overwhelming, he said during a press conference.

“There’s been an enthusiastic response to what we are trying to accomplish,” Pickens said. Since the proposal was introduced on CNBC two days ago, the website to explain the plan has gotten 170,000 hits from individual users, he said.

Pickens, who said he was tired of complaining, developed his energy plan and then started talking to politicians and colleagues. He traveled to the White House eight weeks ago to lay out his ideas. But failing to get the response he wanted, Pickens ponied up $58 million of his own money to barnstorm the country and speak to anyone who would listen. The millions he’s set aside are for this year alone — he’s buying television and print advertising and using the Internet, all to great effect, he said.

“This has been a pitiful case of leadership,” said Pickens, a Republican. “The American people do not understand energy…and they are not getting the truth.”

Since laying out his suggestions, the Pickens Plan website has seen a “grassroots” revival, said Pickens. He recounted the story of a Georgia man who, after hearing about the proposal, called a “town meeting” at an Applebee’s restaurant in Dalton, GA. Forty-six people showed up at the restaurant to talk about the plan. More people are coming up to him every day, he said.

“We know the situation,” Pickens said. “People know something’s wrong.”

With U.S. oil production in decline, the energy industry has embraced some of Pickens’ ideas. Pickens recently met with Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon, who last week suggested that $10 billion should be spent to retrofit about 25,000 gasoline stations across the country so that they could support natural gas.

“Aubrey’s a smart man; he knows what he’s talking about,” said Pickens. McClendon, he said, is interested in using natural gas to solve the energy crisis, and that is where the two men have slightly different ideas. Pickens, who believes natural gas should have a much bigger stake in the transport fuel market, is one of the country’s biggest wind developers. But he said he’s for anything that solves the U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

“Whatever it takes to get us off our addiction to foreign oil, I’m all for,” he said. “If someone else has a better plan, let’s hear it…If they think they know what they’re talking about, let’s hear it.”

Pickens is open to suggestions.

“If it’s the OCS [Outer Continental Shelf], let’s go,” he said. “If it’s renewables, I’m in the business. If we’re making it, we’re not importing oil…I’ve committed a lot of my money to this, but I’m only one guy…I’m an oilman. I don’t have all the answers. In fact, if someone else has a better idea, I’m all for it.” He’s for anything produced in the United States. “The thing to do is figure it out here.”

And what about liquefied natural gas (LNG)? Pickens at one time was working on a proposal to bring LNG to California markets. He’s not as enthusiastic a proponent any longer.

“We’ll never reach the level [of imports] that was predicted,” he said. “We’re in a global market. I don’t believe that it will happen here.” He said markets closer to where LNG is produced likely will take most of the shipments. LNG could play a role as a bridge fuel while fuel alternatives are developed over the coming years, but Pickens said in the long run, he doesn’t think there will be a big U.S. market.

Two people Pickens has yet to hear from about the Pickens Plan are presumptive presidential nominees Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ).

“This is a bipartisan issue,” Pickens said. What he’d like to do is sit down with both Obama and McCain — “just the three of us talking about this.” In any case, Pickens believes either of them should put the energy crisis ahead of all other issues when he takes office in January of next year. “I’m for anybody that can solve this.”

When asked what he thinks about being named the country’s energy czar — a suggestion made by more than one politician this week — Pickens demurred.

“I’m not a politician,” he said. “I have no interest in that. And I have a proposal but I don’t have the answers.” Whoever is tapped to solve U.S. dependence on foreign oil should be told that it “takes persistence, tools, and be told to take the hill.”

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