Hello everyone, and I hope you are enjoying some fine summertime fishing. In a continuing effort to keep the FLW membership abreast on the progress of the Pickens Plan, I’d like to give everyone the following update.

Boone has stated that he hopes the Pickens Bill will come up for a vote in August. To refresh your memory, or bring new readers up to speed, the Pickens Bill, or HR1380, is a bill Boone has introduced that will provide a targeted tax credit for heavy duty trucks that choose to replace their current diesel-burning vehicles over to natural gas.

The benefits of this are many – reduction on imported foreign oil, 30 percent cleaner, and it reduces the nearly one billion dollars the U.S. gives to OPEC each day. As of now, Boone has around 185 co-sponsors, and the group is bi-partisan. Given the partisan atmosphere in Washington, that fact alone is impressive, and makes the Pickens Bill even more legitimate.

The problem Boone is running into is actually getting the bill to come up for a vote. As usual, special interest groups are the reason. Boone points out Koch Industries as one example.

The company has come out against the Pickens Plan, with misinformation on Boone’s initiatives. For example, if one would look into the special interests of Koch Industries they would see that the company is heavily-vested in oil and ethanol and they see clean, natural gas as a threat to the profits they generate from dirty oil.

Companies like Koch Industries are putting personal profits ahead of the future of United States economic, environmental, and national security interests.

Such companies, who see the Pickens Plan undermining their short-term profits, also have tremendous leverage among a segment of politicians – thus the real reason The Pickens Bill is having some challenges coming to a vote.

It is clear to Boone and most experts that if and when the Pickens Bill comes to a vote, it will pass easily. When it does, it will be a major landmark milestone in U.S. energy policy now and into the future.

Not only will the Pickens Bill use our abundant natural gas in place of dirty OPEC oil, it will create a bridge for the development of even more sustainable and clean energy sources like wind and solar power.

We need to get this bill up for a vote. Again, I want to encourage all FLW members and their friends and families to contact your state’s representatives, congress people, and senators, and let them know you support the vote and passage of the Pickens Bill.

It is the right thing to do.

Good fishing!