Pickens: I Am Long Oil, $85 By Next Year

Oil man turned wind power fan T. Boone Pickens sees the price of a barrel of oil rising slightly to $75 by the end of this year and $85 next year.

"I'm long oil," said Pickens in an interview on the sidelines of U.S. Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Democrat Harry Reid's National Clean Energy Summit, a meeting of industry leaders and policy makers.

Pickens has written a blueprint for U.S. energy policy, called the Pickens Plan, that focuses on converting heavy vehicles like big long-distance trucks, to natural gas.

Pickens, traditional environmentalists and those fearing U.S. dependence on foreign oil sources have argued that the nation should focus its efforts on alternative energy, like wind. As the economy has soured, potential jobs for building new energy infrastructure has taken a leading role in debates for changing the economy away from oil. (more)