Oil Tycoon Kicks Off Energy Campaign

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is fed up with America’s dependence on oil and today launched a huge ad campaign to persuade the nation to kick its crude addiction, the Dallas Morning News reports. His "Pickens Plan" proposes that Americans swap gasoline for natural gas, then replace natural gas power plants with wind, solar, and nuclear facilities.

"The problem is, we said, 'Send us the oil, and never mind the cost.' " says Pickens of foreign supppliers. But while welcoming investment into renewable resources, economists note that switching out the gasoline infrastructure would be enormously expensive and may simply result in chiefly importing natural gas as opposed to gasoline. Undeterred, Pickens vows to make energy policy a central issue in the presidential campaign. (More oil stories.)