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November 17, 2009

Ed Matricardi, the Field Director for billionaire T. Boone Pickens Plan to eliminate America’s reliance on foreign oil, recently delivered a Brown Lecture on Sustainability in Edmunds Hall.

The former Executive Director of the Republican Party of South Carolina and Virginia, Matricardi said that Pickens approaches America’s “addiction” to foreign oil “from a realistic point of view,” which is different from “typical environmentalists.”

“Boone knows America is never going to go green simply because it’s the right thing to do or because it’s good in the long run or because we need to save Mother Earth,” Matricardi said. “Boone knows that America will never go green until Americans can find a way to make money going green.”

According to Matricardi, America uses 25% of the world’s oil, which threatens our national security, economy, and environment. Last year, America spent $475 billion last year on foreign oil and will send $10 trillion overseas in the next ten years. If America does so, “it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind,” according to Matricardi.

The Pickens Plan could help solve the problem by creating new jobs by building our capacity to generate 22% of our power from solar and wind, according to Matricardi. In addition, the Plan includes building a 21^st- century electrical transmission grid capable f bringing alternative energy sources to customers. Further, the Pickens Plan seeks to provide incentives for property owners to upgrade their insulation and other energy-saving options. And, finally, the Plan advocates replacing imported foreign oil with domestic natural gas in 18-wheelers, busses, and fleet vehicles.

“In a nutshell, Boone’s plan would reduce our demand for foreign oil by increasing the use of domestic natural gas, which is 80% cleaner and domestic,” Matricardi said.  “We’d use that natural gas for fleet vehicles. We have enough supply to last us 20 years until other sources get mature enough to supply us.

“In that time, we’d replace natural gas used in our homes with alternative energy sources. We could use the time to create other technologies to help us.”

Logan Berry, a junior political science major and chairman of College Republicans, has been advocating the Pickens Plan since being named the State Director of South Carolina in June.