The T. Boone Pickens Channel T. Boone Pickens

Nine years ago today, we launched the Pickens Plan. We knew we had a great idea, and people across the country agreed. We'd held focus groups and found that Americans knew about the problem, but saw that the country lacked an energy plan. They were hungry for something that would work, a specific energy plan that included a little bit of everything -- solar, wind, and natural gas.



For the final podcast on the history of the Pickens Plan, I talk with Peter McCollum, strategic communicator and Partner at Whistle Lake Public Affairs, and Jason Huntsberry, President & CEO of Schenck Foods Co. Although they referred to themselves as "little cogs in a big machine," they were a major part of the tight-knit team that makes the Pickens Plan tick.

Washington, D.C. is as divided as it has ever been, and it has become difficult to set politics aside and get things done. But fortunately the Pickens Plan benefited from a bipartisan team that came together to promote a plan that has our nation’s best interests in mind.



For the latest episode of the Pickens Podcast, I sat down with Rich Galen, a columnist and former press secretary for U.S. Senators Dan Quayle (R-IN) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), and Amy Weiss, former White House Deputy Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton and press secretary and campaign manager for U.S. Rep Mike Synar (D-OK). These two have reached across the aisle to help make the Pickens Plan work. It just goes to show how successful you can be when you can look past personal politics to focus on a mission.

Tammy Haddad and Heather Lauer have helped get out the word about the Pickens Plan since I was drawing it up on whiteboards and restaurant napkins. Now, they’ve moved out from behind the scenes to tell stories from nine years of the plan and to discuss the success we’ve had since my idea in the summer of 2008.



We recall meetings with Gov. Sarah Palin, Gov. George Pataki and Mike Bloomberg in New York. We discuss how the plan has grown and become a success, thanks to support from all ages and both sides of the aisle.

T. Boone Pickens is joined by Jay Rosser, his right hand man for 15 years who serves as his VP of Public Affairs, and seasoned political expert Tom Synhorst, who served as the Campaign Manager of the Pickens Plan.



They reminisce about the beginnings of the Plan in the summer of 2008, how we were importing $1 billion of foreign oil (it’s about half that today), how we had no energy plan and no prospects for one from either Obama or McCain, and how the campaign focused on converting heavy-duty trucks from diesel to natural gas right from the get-go.

As I have been telling you for almost a decade, the benefits of natural gas as a transportation fuel are: It’s cheaper than diesel, it’s cleaner than diesel, it’s abundant, and it’s ours. Listen to this conversation between Fred Smith of FedEx, Chris Spear of American Trucking Associations, and me as we move into a new era of the way our Federal government looks at energy and environment.

We went back to several of the most interesting conversations T. Boone Pickens had for the Pickens Podcast series in 2016 and distilled those visits to our discussions of PEOTUS Donald J. Trump. This "greatest hits" episode features Laura Ingraham, Steve Forbes, Carl Icahn, Tom Daschle & Trent Lott, and Haley Barbour. You'll find these conversations fascinating during this Inauguration Season.