By Kim Chipman
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The most unlikely alliance in this election year hasn't come out of any political campaign. It's in the convergence of interests between billionaire oilman and Republican Party backer T. Boone Pickens and former vice president turned uber-environmentalist Al Gore.
Gore, the Democratic Party's 2000 standard-bearer, and Pickens, who helped bankroll the group that questioned Democrat John Kerry's war record in the 2004 presidential race, are pursuing separate paths toward a shared goal: cutting U.S. dependence on oil.
Pickens said he and Gore have had ``several conversations'' about their complementary campaigns to overhaul the U.S. energy menu and usher in a new era of wind farms, natural gas pumps and solar panels.
``We have to get the country off the $700 billion a year it spends on foreign oil,'' Pickens said in a telephone interview from his ranch in the Texas panhandle. ``It's a killer and is going to cause our economy great problems.''
Gore's emphasis is on the environment more than energy independence. The biggest difference between the two concurrent campaigns and past efforts at addressing both issues is the money being put into the projects and a growing consensus that an era of profitable alternative-energy production is here.
`For the Country'
Pickens, 80, insists his $58 million marketing campaign to push the country off imported oil toward domestic energy sources and his investment in a $10 billion wind farm in Texas isn't about making money -- he's said he does that well enough already.
``What I'm doing now I'm trying to do for the country,'' he said.
Asked if he agrees with another billionaire, Ted Turner, that shifting to a low-carbon economy is the ``biggest business opportunity there's ever been,'' Pickens hesitated.
``Hold on,'' he said.
With that, Turner, the 69-year-old founder of the Cable News Network and Turner Broadcasting got on the line to say he ``absolutely'' believes his assessment is correct.
``I've been saying that for years,'' said Turner, whose ideology is closer to that of Gore than Pickens.
Turner said he and Pickens spent two days ``mostly talking about green energy, global warming.''
Pickens argues that wind harnessed from the country's midsection could provide 22 percent of U.S. electricity by 2010. That would free up natural gas to replace gasoline in vehicles.
Gore's Campaign
Gore, 60, who won a Nobel Prize for raising awareness about global warming, is taking a slightly different approach. In a July 17 speech, he issued a call for the U.S. to completely convert to electricity production from solar, wind and other zero-carbon-emissions sources. His Alliance for Climate Protection is undertaking a $300 million advertising campaign to promote the concept.
Gore's main focus is environmental, though he also frames the debate as a matter of security and economics.
While Pickens views his own proposal as a ``bridge to where Al wants to go,'' there are no plans now to coordinate.
``He asked if we could we join together and do something; I told him no, because global warming is on page two for me,'' Pickens, founder and chairman of Dallas-based BP Capital LLC, said. ``Page one is foreign oil.''
``There are some pieces where they might differ,'' Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said. Gore's ``feeling is they have more in common than the elements that might separate their proposals.''
Environmentalists Enthused
The prospect of two such different public figures even reading from the same book has environmentalists enthused.
``I'm delighted at both of them,'' said lawyer and activist Robert Kennedy Jr., the son of the late Senator Robert Kennedy.
Kennedy, 54, who is seeking a meeting with Pickens, agrees with Turner that the profit motive will trigger the biggest U.S. economic shift since the Industrial Revolution.
``As soon as you open up the marketplace, you are going to see an explosion in entrepreneurial activity,'' Kennedy said.
While Republican lawmakers last week blocked passage of energy legislation that would extend tax credits for alternative energy, backers of such measures say Pickens and Gore are giving the drive increased credibility.
``There's an emerging consensus that renewables, which have been derided for so long as a pop gun when you need a cannon, are showing signs of being able to contribute on a much larger scale than anyone has thought,'' said Reid Dechton, an official in former President George H.W. Bush administration who is now with Turner's United Nations Foundation.
The immediate goal for the two men is turning up the volume of the debate in the presidential campaign. The two major-party candidates, Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, and Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, agree on the need to combat climate change and cut U.S. dependence on oil, even if their solutions differ.
When Gore last month announced his challenge to rewire the country and produce carbon-free electricity, both offered support. McCain made a point of praising Gore. Now Pickens is part of the conversation as well.
At a July 31 fundraiser in Houston, Obama told supporters, ``T. Boone Pickens is onto something here.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net.
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