Pickens wants stimulus money for LNG trucks

Pickens wants stimulus money for LNG trucks Just two months after a failed bid to convince California voters to pay $5 billion to convert heavy-duty trucks throughout the state to run on natural gas, billionaire oil and natural gas magnate T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday he plans to ask the federal government for up to $28 billion from the economic stimulus plan to do the same nationwide.
   Pickens, who has argued that the plan would cut dependence on foreign oil by shifting to domestically produced natural gas, said he has discussed the federal handout with California Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller.
   The discussions come as the congressional Democrats continue to finalize details of an economic stimulus package being called for by President-elect Barack Obama.

Pickens

   Pickens, a long time Republican most known for his financial support of the Swift Boat attacks on Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race, said that the congressional Democrats 'didn’t jump up and give me a standing ovation,' regarding his request, but indicated that the subject was being considered 'seriously.'
   Pickens' plan calls for the initial conversion of about 350,000 heavy-duty diesel trucks to natural gas engines, at a cost of $75,000 per vehicle. Pickens claims the pilot program would create just over 450,000 jobs and cut foreign oil imports by more than 5 percent.
   The trucking industry has cited a lack of natural gas fueling stations and delivery infrastructure as an impediment to switching to the fuel.
   Critics of Pickens' plan have called the effort self-serving, as Pickens owns Mesa Petroleum Corp., the nation's largest producer of natural gas and Clean Energy, the nation's leading developer of natural gas fueling stations.