Tip of the Week # 46

Powering America's Future -- Do Something Even If It's Wrong!

On July 8, 2008, T Boone Pickens announced a major energy policy proposal called "The Pickins Plan" (http://www.pickensplan.com/media/). T Boone's plan promotes alternatives to oil, including natural gas, wind, and solar. A major feature of his plan is to substitute the 22% share of electricity that the United States generates using natural gas to that of green energy produced by wind, which would then allow that same 22% of natural gas to provide 38% of America's fuel for transportation.

So, who is T Boone Pickens?

· If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Boone_Pickens,_Jr. you're presented with some fairly indepth information about this legendary Texan's life.

While I personally have no idea what motivated this flamboyant Billionaire Oilman to develop his energy plan, but I'd be willing to guess that part or all of reasons (below) probably contributed to Pickens' plan:

1. Realizations that oil reserves were rapidly dwindling and, in the long term, he would run out of product to sell.

2. Survival of his corporate empire dictated development of renewable energy products.

3. Frustration in this countries lack of political leadership.

4. Increased heat from Congress and the general public directed at hedge-fund profiteering in oil futures

5. Or -- maybe it is his genuine love for this country that has caused him to invest a sizable chunk of his personal fortune to help to insure America's future.

Pickens himself acknowledges and completely embraces, the power of ALL Media to sell his idea. And to that end, he's set aside more than $50 million to convince John Q Public that his idea has merit and Americans should get behind him. You may have noticed a blitz of Pickens' adds appearing on the tube in your living room recently. Also expect similar ads to start appearing in local newspapers all across the country.

And for all you YouTube and FaceBook addicts:

· http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCDO_JVq9Pk

· http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pickens-Plan/30622359240

Now I'm not here to tell you that T Boone's plan is the greenest - or the best - way to fix global warming. Nor do I believe Pickens' plan is the only way America should proceed towards energy independence.

But I do firmly believe that America should wholeheartedly embrace the Pickens Plan and immediately begin its implementation.

Why? - Because there's no downside to T. Bones' Plan!

Case in point - the gas lines and gas shortages that began October 17, 1973. That's the very day when OPEC announced, as a result of the ongoing Yom Kippur War, that they would no longer ship oil to nations that had supported Israel in its conflict with Syria and Egypt (the U.S., its allies in Western Europe, and Japan).

Since then, these same OPEC members have continued to periodically use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil to manipulate world oil prices. Continued dependence on OPEC's crude oil destabalizes our economy and surpresses economic activity.

Back in 1973, the industrialized world responded to the oil crisis with a wide variety of new, and mostly permanent, initiatives to contain their further dependency. Initiatives like:

· manufacturing smaller and more fuel efficient cars

· lowering of Interstate speed limits

· initiating research into alternative forms of sustainable energy

And then there is Brazil.

The oil crisis of '73 had a huge impact on Brazil's leaders. And as a result, that country made a commitment to wein themselves off of their dependence on OPEC oil by developing and implementing a national plan to find an alternative to gasoline -- a renewable fuel -- that would power their vehicles. They chose ethanol.

And today, after nearly three decades of work, Brazil has succeeded where much of the industrialized world has failed: Their cost-effective national Ethanol program has fully matured. And that, combined with new offshore oil discoveries, is the reason Brazil is energy independent today.

But, we Americans seem to have a short memory. Today, more than 30 years after the gas shortages of 1973, Americans -- once again find ourselves suffering from the adverse effects of our dependence on foreign oil. Although similar, this time the problem is even more critical. This time, the clock is ticking. The world's oil reserves are running out and vehicle emissions are destroying our earth's atmosphere.

"Do something, even if it's wrong!"

While I am quite confident that almost everyone has -- on at least on occasion in their -- heard this saying, I'm not sure that everyone fully understands the implications of this simple bit of advice.

Example:

In our western society, most of us expect to be disciplined, in one form or another, for failure to properly do something we had been told to do.

In our culture -- "our fear of failure" paralyzes our soul - and our country. Rather than risk failure, we opt to do nothing. But the truth is, although we haven't done anything wrong, we have ultimately failed to do anything at all.

Since there's really is no benefit to standing around, floundering, wasting time, waiting for someone to tell us what to do. The only obvious response is "Do something, even if it's wrong!"

The "Dale Carnegie Course in Public Speaking and Human Relations," teaches students how to get things done. They discover that people who get things done, move ahead. Those who move ahead tell us that they make decisions more quickly than those who do not move ahead. And making a quick decision usually tends to be more accurate than waiting and wondering. We get our best "heart-felt" decisions that way. Our first response is usually our best.

"Do something, even if it's wrong!" interprets, Action is better than Inaction. Moving on is better than moping around wondering how bad things can get. Making a decision and working toward a goal is better than sitting down and crying about how bad things are.

And that brings me full circle back to the reason why I feel that there is no downside to the Pickens Plan.

It's been 35 years since the oil crisis of the 70's and today, this country finds itself even more dependent of foreign oil than it was back then. And the cause causes are:

· lack of political leadership

· big Corporations and their political lobbyists

· overall failure of most Americans to embrace renewable energy

Environmentally Friendly Renewable Energy is our goal.

And what we desperately need right now is strong leadership and a plan. T. Boone Pickens is a strong leader and he has presented his plan. I've already told you it makes sense to me.

The upside - even if Pickens' plan isn't the end-all solution to America's energy needs, it is a step in the right direction.

The downside - manifests itself if we Americans allow his plan to become deadlocked in political debate and buried in Government regulation.

This week's tip:

We need to (everyone - repeat after me) "Do something, even if it's wrong!"

See ya next week!