Alternative energy proponent, chairman of BP Capital, T. Boone Pickens, is pushing a plan to "turn the US into the Saudi Arabia of wind power."

He believes that by using the potential of wind power, the US can abolish its dependency on foreign oil, and help revive its economy with money going to rural areas with great wind energy potential like the Dakotas.

The plan, dubbed "The Pickens Plan", was introduced today to the media. Mr. Pickens, a billionaire, will now launch a national ad campaign trying to convince any future administration to follow his plan. His people promise Mr. Pickens face will be as recognizable as the faces of the two US election candidates come November. Could he be interested in running as an independent?

Here's the reasoning of the Pickens Plan, from Pickensplan.com:

"The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country... In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil."

"Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns."

T. Boone Pickens, an investor and business man ranked in Forbes as one of the richest people in the US, is the founder and chairman of BP Capital Management, an energy investment firm.

A quick look at his biography paints a picture of an 1980s agressive, ruthless oil man who seemed to have changed, and now supports environmental causes like alternative energy and a ban on the slaughter of horses. In 2007, he publically declared he supports Rudy Guiliani for presidency.

Here's the USA Today story.

Here's a video of T. Boone Pickens explaining his plan.