GreenBiz: T. Boone Pickens' Roadmap for Green Entrepreneurs

T. Boone Pickens' office in Dallas is 15 minutes from my front door, but our lives are worlds apart. He is a billionaire energy magnate with a plan to get America off foreign oil. I am a sustainability consultant and writer with a desire to reduce America's CO2 emissions. Our worlds collided when I interviewed Boone for my upcoming book.

As it turns out, our missions aren't so different after all. We both want to gain independence from foreign oil, revitalize the economy, protect the environment, and preserve America's status as a superpower. And we're not alone. These are the stated goals of U.S. presidents for the past 40 years.

So why is Pickens succeeding where so many others have failed? He's got a plan, for starters. Here's what Boone tells me to expect if we don't adopt his plan. And here are the opportunities available if we do:

Anna Clark: Boone, I've read through the Pickens Plan and I think I understand it. Could you share the most important elements of it for our readers?

T. Boone Pickens: It goes like this. In 1970 we imported 24 percent of our oil. By 2008, it was 70 percent. The cost of importing this much oil was $700 million dollars when the price of oil reached $140 per barrel. In a few years, this could easily reach $10 trillion dollars as the price of oil goes up. Think about it -- the world produces 85 million barrels a day and we use 21 million in America alone. We have only 4 percent of the population. What are we going to do when China and India catch up with us? That's a big problem. Read more....