T. Boone Pickens Says Obama Is A Loser For The Energy Industry

According to energy magnate T. Boone Pickens, Obama has been a loser for the energy industry. And not just a loser, but "a complete loser".

That he is not a fan of President Obama's policies-including his energy policies--comes as no surprise. Pickens said in 2014 that Obama was "the worst president we've ever had".

"He has never promoted energy and never pays attention to it that I can see," Pickens said in a Thursday interview with Yahoo Finance, without offering up much elaboration as to the reasons for this opinion.

Obama apparently disagrees, as evidenced by him accepting praises at a Hillary Clinton rally earlier this month for the $2.00 gas prices that Americans are basking in today (everyone except for those on the East Coast, that is-although American drivers are willing to squander $2.1 billion on unnecessary gasoline anyway, so we're not sure this matters).

Dallas-based Pickens, flush with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion (as of 2008) on the back of energy, has given regularly to the Republican party, and most notably George W. Bush, to whom Pickens gave the maximum $250,000 donation allowable under campaign laws during Bush's inauguration in 2005.

This election cycle, Pickens chose to back another Bush-Jeb Bush-throwing a $100,000 contribution his way, but he was courting multiple candidates. Pickets hosted a fundraiser for Republican candidate Carly Fiorina late in 2015, while at the same time singing the praises for Ben Carson on the grounds that they shared similar views on energy policy-namely the view that America should wean itself off from OPEC oil.

But come May 2016, Pickens had backed yet another horse: this time, Donald Trump-despite Big Oil's bristling at the idea of Trump's Wall, which has the potential to alienate Mexico and along with it, its mouthwatering oil investment opportunities. Similar to Carson's, Trump's energy platform is solidly anti-OPEC, and centers around complete "American energy independence."

While Big Oil may be skeptical of backing a wildcard candidate such as Trump, Pickens is solidly in his corner, and is solidly against Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, who has been accused of having opposing viewpoints of fracking depending on whether the fracking is taking place at home or abroad.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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