Pickens' plan offers perks at gas pump

By Stacey Cameron, NEWS 9

Dale Wade's truck doesn't use gasoline. Instead, it burns compressed natural gas, and Wade only pays 90 cents a gallon.

"It cost me like $6.90 to fill completely up," Wade said.

It's the same thing said by billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

"Natural gas is cleaner," Pickens said. "It's cheaper and it's abundant in the United States."

Pickens wants to cure what he calls America's addiction to foreign oil. According to the oilman, the remedy is natural gas and the wind.

"Oklahoma is right in the wind corridor," Pickens said.

Pickens plan called for building wind farms along a corridor stretching from Texas through Oklahoma, and north to North Dakota. Pickens thinks Americans could start using natural gas to fuel their cars.

Tom Price is a Senior Vice President with Chesapeake Energy, the largest independent producer of natural gas in the country. According to Price, natural gas burns cleaner than gas and there's a larger supply of natural gas in the US which could mean the price at the pump is going to be cheaper.

"I think the commitment starts today," Price said. "The other beautiful thing is Oklahoma produces so much of it."

Both Price and Pickens admit we are at least five years from seeing natural gas compete at the pump.