Billionaire oil magnate T. Boone Pickens brought his crusade for energy independence to Kansas on Wednesday. telling a packed town hall meeting in Topeka that the nation can develop enough wind power to meet 20 percent of its energy needs and divert natural gas from electricity production to fuel motor vehicles.
Mesa Power, a company Pickens created, is investing about $2 billion in a Texas wind plant that will generate enough electricity to power about 300,000 homes. He also is investing in natural gas fueling centers in California.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius praised Pickens for "bold new ideas" and a willingness to put his money on the line.
"We are borrowing money from China to import 70 percent of our oil -- much of it from nations that don't like us very much -- and when we burn it, it harms our planet," Sebelius said. "If that doesn't seem like a lose, lose, lose, I don't know what does."
Read the full story at kansas.com.