Billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens will speak in Bismarck on Monday during the Great Plains Energy Expo, where he will outline his plan for making the United States energy independent. His keynote address is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

Pickens, founder and chairman of B.P. Capital Management, is promoting the "Pickens Plan," which would create a corridor of energy-producing wind turbines from Texas to Canada. He also wants to tap into more natural gas and nuclear power to wean Americans off of foreign oil.

Pickens spoke with the Bismarck Tribune on Friday.

What do you plan on saying on Monday at the Energy Expo?

"I'll talk about the Pickens Plan, which is the only proposed plan for our country. If you're not for the Pickens Plan you're for foreign oil, that's clear cut. It's a valid plan, which we can accomplish over a period of five to 10 years, and we can do it together and it's not going to be that expensive to do it."

What is your opinion of President-elect Barack Obama regarding his energy policies, and do you think he will be able achieve or at least put the country on the right track for energy independence during his administration?

"I don't think he can achieve energy independence during his term, I think he can make great strides in the right direction and the right direction is to reduce the dependency on foreign oil. But to accomplish that, you're going to have to use natural gas to be a big part of the solution. Use everything that is American from biofuels, to plug-in hybrids to nuclear."

Do you have any advice for the new president?

"Sure, use my plan. It's the only plan available to use."

How do you think North Dakota plays a role in your plan?

"There's no question that we have to do the renewable, of course that's wind and solar. North Dakota is huge in wind � in the Williston Basin you've got the Bakken play going on in your own backyard."

People often say in North Dakota that we lack the infrastructure to move our energy to market. What do you think our leaders need to do to make sure we can make North Dakota a viable source of energy?

"Congress has got to get the corridors to transmit power to the East and West coasts, and I think that will be accomplished. We have to have a nationwide grid. We aren't even operating in the 21st century. There are so many things that have to be done, but all of them help rural America is what happens.

"If you do the plan that the Department of Energy laid out last year to do 200,000 megawatts of power in the Great Plains of the United States it will, in the first year, create 138,000 jobs. Then over the period of 10 years it will create another half a million jobs. So that's all billable and actually it isn't a big cost to the government to accomplish it."

The national economy has taken a beating in the last couple months. What do you think that does to the political will to make the U.S. truly energy independent, especially in light of hundreds of billions in government capital going to bailout financial markets?

"You gotta solve the problem, because the generation to come is going to have a different standard of living than my generation did, because if you move forward 10 years from today and we do nothing more for our energy than we did in the last four years, then we will be faced in 10 years with 75 percent of our oil imported and we'll be paying $200 to $300 a barrel for it. So that's going to be a complete disaster for the country. So we have to get on the problem; I've given a solution and it's well on our way to energy independence, and I hope everybody embraces that and works together to move forward."

Is this the worst you've ever seen the national economy, and what else do you think is in store for the American people?

"I'm not an economist. I was born in 1928, so as a young boy I went through the depression and I remember that very well. I lived in a small town in eastern Oklahoma and everybody struggled through the 1930s, and so it was a bit of a tough time for the country. This is also going to be a tough time for the country too. … If we don't get a turnaround here in 2009 and I don't think it will come before late 2009 that we could in early 2010 reach double digit unemployment. That's going to be a sad day when that happens."

Now that Democrats have an even larger majority in Congress, do you think anything has changed in terms of what lawmakers can do to pass energy independence legislation? What are your expectations over the next session?

"I think they can very well see the problem, and I think they'll pass something. … I think they will tackle the security problem of imported foreign oil. I look forward to this Congress accomplishing something that is constructive."

Oil prices have dropped over the last few months from more than $4 to nearly $2. Do you think that makes it harder politically to bring about dramatic change in the United States energy infrastructure?

"The only thing that's changed is we're importing almost 70 percent of the oil. And at $140 a barrel, it was costing us $700 billion a year. And at $70 a barrel, it will be half that, and we would be looking at $350 million. Does that make it harder? It should make it harder, because we're still importing almost 70 percent of the oil and we're paying less money for it … we need to move as quickly as we can from foreign oil."

In order to make your plan work, will you have to use the power of eminent domain? And if so why?

"The landowners for the location of the (wind) turbines, you don't need eminent domain for that. If people want the turbines on their land, you can put them on the land, and if they don't, don't put them there. You don't go with eminent domain to place turbines. The place you want eminent domain is to move the power to the East and West coasts out of the Great Plains."

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@bismarcktribune.com.)