Leave it to good old T. Boone Pickens to compare frog boiling with the US-Opec strategic relationship. Pickens today posted a piece on LinkedIn promoting his ‘Pickens Plan’ – a multi-pronged approach to eliminating US oil imports – that harkened back to President Nixon’s promise of US energy independence.

In 1973, President Nixon said:

“Let us set as our national goal, in the spirit of Apollo, with the determination of the Manhattan Project, that by the end of this decade we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy sources.”

And basically so has every subsequent president.

The ever-colorful Pickens argues, among other things, that stationing the US Navy’s 5^th Fleet in Bahrain is a great deal for China and Opec, but a lousy one for the United States. He also claims Opec has slowly raised the price of oil over 40 years – a highly-specious and over-simplified argument – yet one likely to resonate with a general public who does not understand global oil market complexities.

“There is an old saying that the best way to boil a frog is to raise the temperature slowly. If you raise it too fast, the frog will jump out; but raise it slowly and the frog won’t be concerned until it’s too late. In the 40 years since the Nixon speech OPEC has raised the heat on us – the price of its oil – slowly enough so we haven’t noticed.”

For all his bluster, Pickens definitely understands the energy business and makes some accurate points. While his hyperbole can be a bit much, there’s something very likable about the 85-year old self-made billionaire.