Mr. Pickens starts out by pointing out that we import 70% of our oil, which is, as far as I can tell, correct.  He then points out that the Saudis et al are growing rich from us, which again is nothing new. At this point, we're all along for the ride, wondering why (akin to illegal immigration) we haven't solved this problem since the last time we had an oil crunch.  

This is where Pickens does a logical turn that, as far as I can tell, has been totally missed by every commentator - he starts talking about wind power.

Now, excuse me if I'm wrong, but the two largest uses of petroleum are transportation and manufacturing of things like plastics, tires, etc.  Electricity, at least since the death of the trolleys circa 1940, has been a limited niche player in transportation.  Obviously, we have yet to figure out how to produce synthetic rubber, rayon, etc from electrical current.  

So, Pickens is using a straw man argument.  The truth is that only 4% of the USA's energy production uses oil products.  If Pickens' statistics above are correct, only 2.8% of our electricity comes from foreign oil.  If you add in natural gas - which has 135 (industry figures) to 22% (Pickens figures) of the electrical generating market, of which 18% of that is imported - you see that only 2.3 - 4% more is generated from foreign energy.  

So, all told, maybe 5-6% of the US energy needs are from imported energy.  Let me repeat that -- only 5-6% of the electricity used in the USA comes from foreign "oil".

Let's look at this a different way - 30% of the natural gas used in this country is used for electrical power.  With a massive shift back to electric heat (remember the "all electric home" of the 1970's?) you might save 50% of the natural gas bill for this country.  However, this still would not mean that we're sending fewer dollars to the OPEC nations, since we've still using oil for consumer goods and transportation.  

Bottom line - as it stands now, those Pickens windmills won't directly displace more than a few drops in a vast sea of oil.  Failing a major shift of transportation to natural gas (which, under Pickens' vision is no longer needed for electricity), Pickens' oil futures and Texas oil wells will still sell every drop that they make, and at the same prices.  

And that, then, is the bottom line for Pickens -- It's not about windmills, or keeping money at home (at least our homes), but about taking the country to natural gas for transportation.

Coincidentally, can you guess who is a major player in natural gas?  Well, bless his little Texan heart... you guessed it... T Boone.  Which, of course, makes anyone wonder if he's really interested in replacing natural gas in those electrical generation plants, since windmills are pretty iffy things, being weather-related and all.  

Pickens is simply using a bit of creative marketing to expand natural gas usage in these "Plan" ads to sell more natural gas.  His hope is that the US Congress mandates natural gas vehicles, replacing gasoline, diesel, ethanol, etc.

In addition to promoting "the plan", he's also pouring his money into the Prop 10 proposal on the California ballot, which promotes "clean energy" by authorizing $5 billion ($9.8 billion with the interest) in bonds to subsidize massive migration to "...certain high fuel economy and alternative fuel vehicles."  Care to guess which vehicles qualify?