T. Boone Pickens has been in the national media quite a bit lately. The Texas oil billionaire, who now commands a hedge fund in Dallas, has given hundreds of millions to his alma mater -- Oklahoma State -- and now is spending nearly $58 million of his own money to convince the U.S. to get off foreign oil and into alternative energy. Pickens is 80 now -- he is obviously not doing this for the money. Should we listen to him? Based on his outstanding business history, I'd say yes.

The oilman with decades of experience in energy futures and hedging predictions seems like he has turned his back on oil -- the precious juice that made him his fortune. But when someone with the successful past of Pickens says that the U.S. can't drill its way to success with more oil, we should probably listen.

Pickens began lighting up the media this week with advertisements on radio, in newspapers, on television and even a Facebook page and a complete YouTube channel. Picken's Plan is to reduce American dependence on foreign oil by one-third over the next ten years -- and he's fronting a good start off with his own money, which he's pouring mostly into wind energy. In fact, Pickens announced the world's largest wind farm last year, which he plans to build in Texas. Pickens, never one to not speak his mind, said "This whole thing, all it can do is get worse ... the only thing that could turn it around is global recession."

The oil market, to put it diplomatically, has not provided a great deal of encouragement lately for policy makers attempting to stimulate U.S. economic growth.

Further, time was when an $80 or $85 price would be considered unreasonably high, or even outlandish. But given oil's breakthrough and close above key, psychological resistance of $100 per barrel this week, $80 looks almost like an acceptable price.

Moreover, oil mogul and billionaire T. Boone Pickens says we may get there. Providing a ray of light for concerned business executives, consumers and public officials, Pickens, who accurately predicted oil's rise to $100 per barrel, told CNBC Thursday oil should drop $10-15 in the second quarter of 2008.

"I think oil's going to back off," Pickens said during the interview. "The weakest quarter is the second quarter. We'll drop $10 or $15 a barrel in the second quarter. I think we'll be back above $100 in the second half of the year."