Who did T. Boone Pickens anger more last night, OPEC or fracking victims? Founder and Chairman of BP Capital, T. Boone Pickens visited The Daily Show last night, where he described The Pickens Plan, denied fracking damage, and made many other controversial statements.
The Pickens Plan encourages a shift away from imported oil, with increased use of America's natural gas and alternative energy options. Pickens hopes that the U.S. will soon be off of OPEC oil, and he insisted "we can knock them out in 10 years."
Pickens explained that China, Abu Dhabi, and Iran are all embracing natural gas, practing aspects of The Pickens Plan. Stewart jokingly responded, "Why did China get it? Did you offer it to us first?" Pickens answered that the U.S. has been slower to jump on the bandwagon, "son of a bitch."
Then it got a bit heated - Stewart asked if the U.S. has been slow to embrace natural gas due to issues of safety, such as the harmful effects of fracking. While there are accusations that fracking contaminates the aquifer, Pickens insisted, "I have never seen that happen. And you're not talking about Ned in the first reader. I've been here. I have fracked 3,000 wells in my life... I've never seen anything damaged."
It is unlikely that this statement would go over well with residents drinking the wastewater discharges from the Marcellus Shale, and doubtful that Academy Award nominee Josh Fox would agree, whose controversial documentary shows that for people living near fracking sites, "You wake up dizzy and your children have nosebleeds in the middle of the night, and when you call the DEP they go, 'Well, we don't have any evidence of pollution from hydraulic fracturing.'"
Putting aside the fracking debate, Pickens insisted that the U.S. needs an energy plan, stating that we are in fact "the only ones without an energy plan." For Pickens, that plan must involve energy independence.