Texas tycoon betting on fossil fuels
‘Canada’s going to produce its oil, it should produce its oil, the world needs it’
Legendary Texas energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens had a some what provocative message for a B.C. audience at the Surrey Regional Economic Summit: Fossil fuels are the future.
Brushing off concerns of climate change, Pickens — in a folksy discussion led by the Business Council of B.C. — said Canada is a good bet to develop a liquefied natural gas export sector.
He also said U.S. President Barack Obama should approve the Keystone XL pipeline and North America should remain a bastion of cheap energy to attract global business.
“Canada’s going to produce its oil, it should produce its oil, the world needs it,” Pickens said, linking it to what he calls his “Pickens plan” for U.S. energy independence.
Pickens was one of the higher-profile speakers at the sixth annual summit, which Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts hailed as another success, paid for entirely through ticket sales to some 340 attendees and sponsorships.
Under Pickens’ plan, the U.S. would convert its eight-million-vehicle heavy-truck fleet to burn natural gas to capitalize on the American shale gas boom and eliminate its need for oil imports from OPEC countries, particularly those on the Persian Gulf.
Pickens wants to see Obama approve TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline, which he believes will be approved this year and would benefit Canada’s ambitions to export oil to offshore markets.
“I don’t think you’re going to need to export oil off the West Coast,” he said in an interview.
B.C.’s ambitions for LNG exports were a strong undercurrent Thursday, and Pickens was bullish about B.C.’s chances. “You’ve got plenty of gas,” he said, as well as a desire to find new markets.
“No question, there’s energy in the sun, and energy in the wind,” Pickens said, but he doesn’t see them becoming primary sources of energy. “Fossil fuels, globally, (are) going to be the primary fuel for the future.”
His position, however, hit a strong counter-argument from former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, one of the speakers on a subsequent summit panel, who was on hand to talk about weathering economic storms along with fellow panellists Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia, and ex-Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.
“We can get caught up if we are countries finding resources,” Papandreou said, “but we have to move to a carbon-neutral economy, because otherwise we will be destroying opportunities for the next generation.”
The half-day summit took place at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel with a highly visible RCMP security presence, which Watts said was appropriate with “three international leaders” in attendance.