File:T. Boone Pickens and & the Gas Heads (6734391415).jpg

Some more quotes from the JP Morgan Alternative Investment Summit (AIS) this morning, with quite a different tone….

T. Boone Pickens: “You can’t have a five minute conversation on energy in Washington. They run out of things they can talk about in less than five minutes.”

“There is more oil in Canada than Saudi Arabia. If we turn away the Keystone pipeline from Fort McMurray to the sea for China, we will go down as the dumbest nation in history.”

Robert Friedland, CEO of Ivanhoe Mines” “The U.S. is institutionalizing stupidity by not importing Canadian oil.”

“If we can solve the porosity and access the gas, there more natural gas in Pennsylvania and New York than in China.”

“You can graph all human activity and you will see a steady increase in electrical consumption per person on the planet. And that will take more copper because copper is a better conductor than anything, except silver and gold. [incorrect, by the way] We will consume more copper in the next 20 years than the last 100 years.”

“If you don’t grow it, you have to mine it.”

“It’s a crime against humanity to make ethanol out of corn. We are driving up food prices. Just tap the gas.”

“We are trying a new fracking technology without chemicals; it used electro-magnetic pulses to free the formations. With all of the advances, we have $2.34 natural gas. Technology does not care about the idiots in Washington.”

T. Boone: “I saw my first fracked well in 1953. I have fracked 3000 wells personally. I have not seen an aquifer damaged.”

“France has a no fracking rule. Noone has ever accused that crowd of being real smart.”

Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood “There are more communists in France than in China. They don’t do anything like the rest of us, but eat.”

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase “Dodd Frank will work out OK. The game will not significantly change.”

“The housing problem is over. People hate projecting an inflection point and would rather say something less specific. We will have 13 million new Americans in the next 10 years and we don’t have homes for them. We destroy about 400 thousand homes a year. If we go back to 1.3 million new homes per year, then the homebuilding industry gets rid of half of the excess unemployment.”