T. Boone Pickens Backs Obama's Offshore Drilling Plans

Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens said Wednesday he supports President Barack Obama’s efforts to promote offshore drilling on the East Coast.

Pickens is widely known as an advocate of growing America’s energy reserves through alternative energy sources and drilling.

“President Obama’s plan to promote more offshore drilling for oil and natural gas is an important step in achieving true energy reform,” Pickens said. “We should be taking full advantage of every available American resource to help decrease our crippling dependency on foreign oil—a dependency that is slowing our economic recovery and jeopardizing our homeland security.”

Last month, Pickens said the United States continues to be too dependent on foreign oil imports, even as the economy has weakened demand.

The well-known financier and renewable-energy proponent reported that the United States imported 59 percent of its oil — or 322 million barrels — in February 2010, sending $24.6 billion overseas. In the first two months of the year, America paid about $50 billion for foreign oil.

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