There Will Be Boone (Tx. Monthly Magazine/Sep)

[Dover]

photo similar to that taken for the film Giant

The most famous wildcatter in Texas history is spending $58 million of his own money to promote the Pickens Plan, which proposes massive wind farms (which he’s already building), more reliance on natural gas (which he has a huge stake in), and ways to combat global warming (which loyal Republicans aren’t supposed to believe is real) to break America’s addiction to foreign oil. But does the 80-year-old have the energy to save the world?

It was July 8 in New York City and eighty-year-old T. Boone Pickens was, once again, the toast of the town. Wearing wraparound Ray-Bans and a gray pin-striped oxford suit, he strolled into the ornate Palace Hotel, stopped to shake hands with some well-wishers in the lobby—“Hey, Mr. Pickens, what an honor!” bellowed one businessman, his eyes widening as if he were meeting a head of state—and bounded upstairs to a banquet room, where a couple dozen journalists and photographers were gathered to hear his plan to save America from its addiction to foreign oil. Boone had spent more than an hour that morning chatting about the plan on CNBC, and he had also appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and NPR’s Morning Edition. Later that day, he was scheduled to meet with CNN, Fox, and the BBC, followed by visits to the offices of the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, and the CBS Evening News, where Katie Couric herself had decided to interview him for that night’s newscast.

“Now, listen to me, we’re in a ditch,” Boone told the reporters in his slow, gravelly drawl. “We’ve got all these politicians talking about better health care and what all, but believe me, we’re not going to have the money to take care of sick people—or anyone else as far as I’m concerned—if we don’t fix our energy problem right now. I’ve got an idea what to do. It might not be a perfect idea, but hell, none of my best ideas have been perfect.”

cont'd

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2008-09-01/feature.php