NEW YORK — Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday he’ll spend $58 million on a multimedia campaign designed to bring more focus to solving the nation’s energy crisis.
The former wildcatter, who now heads the Dallas-based hedge fund BP Capital Management LP, kicked off the media blitz Tuesday with a news conference in New York.
It will include television, newspaper and radio advertisements — as well as a hefty online presence that includes a Facebook page and a dedicated YouTube channel — to spotlight an issue Pickens calls the biggest problem facing America: its dependence on foreign oil.
“It’s 100 percent Boone’s money,” Pickens said in a meeting with reporters and editors at The Associated Press’ headquarters. “I don’t have any partners in this.”
The ad campaign is centered on a proposal the octogenarian is calling “The Pickens Plan,” which aims to cut U.S. dependence on foreign sources by more than a third over the next decade.
The plan calls for the installation of thousands of wind turbines straddling the middle of the country that Pickens said would generate enough power to meet 20 percent of the nation’s electricity needs. New power lines would be needed to connect them to cities in the Midwest, South and West.
Meanwhile, natural gas that had been used for electricity production would be turned into a transportation fuel that could replace some gasoline and diesel fuel.
Last year, Pickens announced plans to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas. The cost of the project could grow to $12 billion before its scheduled completion in 2014.
Pickens dismissed a question about political or business motives for his plan.
“I don’t have any profit motive in this. I’m doing it for America; that’s my point,” he said.
He said the United States has “earned the right” to an agreement that would effectively give the U.S. the opportunity to buy Iraqi oil at market prices. The Middle Eastern country, he added, “has a real opportunity” to increase its output by up to 5 million barrels per day — twice what it produces now.
