Energy investor T. Boone Pickens says more drilling isn't the answer. "I hate it when candidates get up and say we are going to be energy independent." Pickens visited with Tiger 21 members in a recent sit-down in Dallas, which is home now to the first Tiger 21 chapter in Texas. Tiger 21 is a peer-to-peer learning group of high-net-worth investors.

"The answer is not offshore," he told group members. "It's not at home. The big fields are gone. The oil's been found."

He dismissed the contention that the hotly contested Arctic National Wildlife Refuge holds the answer; its 2-million-barrel-a-day capacity would represent a drop in the bucket of America's 21-million-barrel-a-day oil habit.

So, how will future U.S. energy needs be satisfied? Pickens estimates there are 200 billion barrels locked up in Alberta's oil sands-site of his heaviest single oil investment. He dismissed the Saudi claim of holding 255 billion barrels of reserves. Shale deposits in the U.S. Rockies hold promise, he added-if producers could get to it. The technology, Pickens conceded, isn't there yet.

His fuel plan for the next presidential administration would include ethanol and liquefied natural gas; his 10-year-old company, Clean Energy, is North America's largest provider of natural gas for vehicles. He still believes in coal stocks, but the unsung portion of his plan is nuclear technology, in which he has actively investigated deals.

"We're going to need everything," he told Tiger 21 members. "Costs of nuclear are insignificant compared to what we're paying now for power." Safety concerns should be viewed in perspective. "No one in the U.S. was ever hurt or killed in a nuclear accident."

Tiger 21 founder and chairman is Michael Sonnenfeldt.

"This is exactly the kind of insight and straight shooting we expected from Boone Pickens, who gave our members plenty of both," he said.

"...Few people have had careers filled with as much challenge and adventure, and fewer still have had as much impact on their industry and on American business. Needless to say, our members were totally engaged in his presentation."