Ramping up the photo-ops on oilman T. Boone Pickens’ alternative energy crusade, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson Monday became the first of his colleagues nationally to sign a pledge to join Pickens’ campaign to “break America’s addiction to foreign oil.”

The former oil industry billionaire was in Albuquerque last week for a town hall meeting to explain his plan to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil by 30% during the next 10 years.

Richardson said there were some elements of the Pickens’ plan that concern him, but he nevertheless supports the campaign’s call on the next president to immediately develop “a comprehensive energy plan” for reducing oil dependence and promoting renewable energy on a massive scale. Pickens wants to move to more electricity produced from wind and other renewable sources while at the same time converting the transportation sector to the use of natural gas (see Daily GPI, July 11).

Noting that the nation spends nearly $700 billion annually for foreign oil, the Pickens’ pledge calls for an Energy Independence Plan to be enacted within the first 100 days of the new administration. Delaying it, the Pickens supporters argue, gives tacit support for continuing “an American addiction” to foreign oil.

Appealing to the New Mexico governor as a former head of the federal Department of Energy in the Clinton administration, Pickens said Richardson “knows how dangerous the current situation is from a national security standpoint. And as a sitting governor he also knows the economic risks of spending $700 billion a year importing foreign oil.”

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