To the editor:

When an oilman and environmentalists agree, you know the momentum for real change is building.

And that is just what is happening. In Denver this week, Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope talked about the Pickens Plan, which calls for huge increases in investment and production of wind power and using American natural gas as a transition.

In a recent ad publicizing the plan, Pickens says the current debate over drilling “misses the point.” As a Sierra Club member, I concur. The current political emphasis on whether or not to open up more of the coastline to drilling is a distraction, a “head fake.” Pickens, who’s made billions from oil, believes the Bush administration is wildly exaggerating how much oil can be found offshore and in Alaska.

The failed policies of the past won’t move us forward. True economic opportunity for all Americans is in clean energy technologies like wind and solar. Even T. Boone Pickens understands that; the question is when will our leaders in Washington?

Susanna Wingenroth

Cape Coral