Noted oil and gas man T. Boone Pickens isn’t shy about his feelings on Washington, and he didn’t hold back in an interview with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer at the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles. Pickens, Founder of BP Capital, says, “I don’t think Washington has a clue” just how extensive U.S. energy resources are. Pickens says the number one thing he would like to see from the next President is a U.S. energy policy, which he believes is non-existent at this point.
“I mean here we are the number one gas producer in the world," he says. "We are right up there with Russia and Saudi Arabia.”
The United States produces 9.2 million barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Russia produces 10.2 million per day and Saudi Arabia produces 9.6 million barrels per day.
Boone Pickens doesn’t think the U.S. is taking advantage of its vast energy resources. Asked what he would like to see from the next President, he says, “I wish we had an energy plan… we don’t have [one] and I would like to see that happen.”
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So who is he supporting in the 2016 Presidential election? Governor Jeb Bush. Pickens says he has always supported the Bushes and has always voted Republican, and he has no plans to change that in 2016.
“If I was going to change, who are my choices on the Democrats’ side? I don’t think Hillary Clinton’s going to be a candidate.”
Pickens says he doesn’t think Clinton will make it to the end of the campaign. He says, simply, “I think she’ll pull out of the deal.”
Why would the presumptive Democratic nominee, who at this point holds at least a 50 point lead over her nearest Democratic challengers in national polls, pull out of the race?
Pickens points to questions surrounding Clinton’s use of a personal email account and server during her time as Secretary of State. In a news conference about the email account, former Secretary Clinton said she had some 30,000 emails deleted out of more than 60,000 emails sent or received between March 2009 and February 2013.
“She’s got too much to explain… scrubbing the server like she did,” he says. “Her timing may be very bad.”
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