Pickens' Plan & Gore's Challenge

T. Boone Pickens, on July 15, enunciated his Plan to free us from the importation of foreign oil. Al Gore uttered his Challenge to our nation "to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years" on July 17. Both Pickens' Plan and Gore's Challenge are designed to give us carbon-free energy and freedom from the importation of fossil fuels. Both are worthy plans to be seriously considered. They should not be considered competing plans. So how can we mesh the two plans together and have a united front on our long-term objective for plentiful domestic carbon-free renewable energy for all of our country (and in the process make a dramatic step for the improvement of our environment and reduction of global warming)? Gore would have us reach our goal in 10 years and would rely upon the development of solar power and wind power. And he favors pushing the manufacture of plug-in electric cars. Pickens would rely upon the advancement of wind generation facilities; and thus make more natural gas available as a transportation fuel. By these means, Pickens says that we can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years.
My tentative conclusions: the new Congress should promptly come up with a definite long-term plan to make the sun and the wind our principal sources of energy, resulting in the complete elimination of our dependence upon foreign energy sources. Because of our present huge public debt and the state of our economy, it will probably take more than 10 years. But we need to make a definite start. Then, the question arises as to what we can do NOW about our energy sources in the near future. We can promote less energy use, more efficient fuel and fuel-efficient vehicles. Other possibilities: withdrawing oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve; drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; drillling in the Outer Continental Shelf; extraction of oil from shale; more nuclelar power plants; more use of coal and natural gas. A bi-partisan commission needs to be appointed to come up with a comprehensive plan, after considering all the possibilities.