T. Boone Pickens is a wealthy oil man from Oklahoma. (I’ve also heard people refer to him as “T. Bone.”)

The man has so much money, he’s been running national TV commercials touting his plan to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.

What would a plan like this mean for the future of South Dakota?

Mr. Pickens is the first to admit that his investments would benefit if his plan were to be implemented.

In a nutshell, Pickens’ Plan consists of combining wind power for electricity generation and natural gas to power our vehicles. Implementing the plan would be expensive, but as Pickens points out, so is our dependence on foreign oil.

Oil dependence is a national security issue, especially since the percentage of oil coming from foreign sources keeps rising.

Pickens also believes that the “cheap and easy oil is gone” and that world oil production has peaked. This is probably at least part of the reason he says this is one problem we can’t “drill our way out of.”

This plan could have huge implications for South Dakota because our state lies right in the middle of the wind corridor running from North Dakota to Texas. An extensive wind power plan could very well be a “boone” to rural economies such as ours.

What do you believe? Is this plan enough? Does it make sense?