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Operation Haiti Hope; President Obama's Ambitious Plans for Offshore Drilling; Saving a Farm; T. Boone Pickens on What American Needs to Do
Aired March 31, 2010 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Okay. Today the United Nations is focused on Haiti, not just rebuilding it, but making it better than it was before January's earthquake. World leaders are getting together at the United Nations to orchestrate nearly $4 billion in donations from 120 countries over the next year and a half, but it's more than donations.
We have to start thinking about business opportunities in Haiti. And one of the ideas that's taken root is mangos. Check this out. Operation Haiti Hope. Coca-Cola is spearheading this effort along with a nonprofit organization named Technoserve and the government of Haiti, and what it will do is invest $7.5. over 5 years to double the income of 25,000 mango farmers basically by creating more mango groves and more workers for those mango groves.
Here's what they do. They come up with this drink. Odwalla, as you may know, is a Coca-Cola brand. And this is called Mango Limeade. It's made from mangos that are all from Haiti. Bill Clinton was actually there last night. He took a sip of it. He liked it.
Here's the bottom line. I sat down with the prime minister of Haiti and the CEO of Coca-Cola to discuss what this project aims to achieve. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUHTAR KENT, CEO & CHAIRMAN, COCA-COLA COMPANY: The idea was how can we create a sustainable business that actually benefits the people of Haiti, that actually contributes to the society of Haiti? And there was the idea of this -- Haiti Hope Juice was born.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: So tell me how this works.
KENT: This works in the following way, in a very simple way. Right now it's being put into the market. The registered name under Odwalla Haiti Hope. And it is through retailing partners in the United States, and it's available for consumption, for sale and for consumption, in the United States.
We will create groves, mango groves in Haiti, make sure that we protect the mango groves, make sure the awareness in Haiti is raised. So all the funds from this venture go back to Haiti.
VELSHI: One of the things about Haiti that people may not know is that it had a great dependence on agriculture in the past, and there have been policies that have changed that over the years to the point that Haiti was a net importer of so many of the things that it used to grow.
Are you hoping this is a step in a direction that will take Haiti back to being a grower of produce and perhaps an exporter of produce?
JEAN-MAX BELLERIVE, HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER: Certainly. Certainly. We have other products, but mango is a good example.
But for the produce, it's more than that. It's not only that you are going to produce more, you have to need -- you need partners in order to distribute it, to make the marketing and all that. So, with that partnership that we are starting with Coca-Cola, and perhaps through Coca-Cola or other partners, we can expand that idea that we -- not only to produce, it's also to sell it, to market it.
And there we have the experience, and we hope it's not only an humanitarian project, it will be a project where education, transformation of the product will be a big issue. But education also will be a big issue for the people producing mangoes in Haiti.
VELSHI: Mr. Moreno, I'm going to ask you a very difficult question here. Why should I care that Coca-Cola and Haiti have made a deal? It sounds fine. What has this got to do with the rest of the world and our relationship to Haiti?
LUIS ALBERTO MORENO, PRESIDENT, INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT: BANK: Well, it's fundamental, and I think it's a game changer. Think for a minute of somebody living in the central plateau of Haiti, having five mango trees, which is, by the way, kind of the average each person has.
That person today is probably cutting those trees to use them for firewood. We're giving, with this concept, the opportunity for that farm to turn that wood that he would have in his mind into a source of income.
This is a country that 70 percent of the people live on less than $2 a day. We will be helping, with the government of Haiti and others, and TechnoServe, o organize those farmers, because it's very important to give them technical expertise, train them how to do it, give them fertilizers, give them the systems of transportation in the way that you basically do the movement of the whole chain.
Those are the reasons why people in Haiti live in poverty. And this is a way to change that, because at the end of the day, what you're doing is the best social policy possible, which is a job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: All right. And that is a discussion about the operation Haiti Hope. Those mango juices have been available since about last Thursday. You can buy them anywhere you buy juices.
All right. Here's what I've got "On the Rundown" now. A call for more offshore oil drilling. That part's not surprising, we've heard it before. What might surprise you is who it's coming from, President Obama himself.
What do his allies and his rivals think about this? We're going to talk to the Tea Party about it.
We'll also talk to this gentleman, T. Boone Pickens. He's a bona fide oilman, a bona fide billionaire, and a bona fide advocate for alternative energy.
Plus, CNN investigates stinging allegations against the Church of Scientology. Did the man in charge smack around his employees and encourage them to do the same to their subordinates? This has set off a raging controversy, and we'll go right to the heart of it.
All right. But first, we're going to take a look at the flooding in the Northeast. Rhode Island is where some of the worst of it is.
(WEATHER REPORT)
VELSHI: I want to talk to you about oil right now. You all use it, right? You use oil, you use gasoline.
I don't know if you keep track of it. It's not like those days where oil was $140 a barrel, or over $100 a barrel. We probably don't watch it as much as you should, but here's my trusty oil barrel. Some of you will remember this has been part of my life for a long time.
You can take a look at the price here. This is what oil settled at yesterday, $82.37.
So why does that have people concerned? Well, because we're in a tough economy right now. A lot of people aren't working. A lot of people aren't driving. They've changed to smaller cars.
Why is oil that expensive even when the economy is how it is? Well, that has led the president to announce something that seems to some people like a bit of a turnaround, particularly of Democratic policy, the idea that he will allow offshore oil drilling in areas that have not, until now, been used for offshore oil drilling.
I'll explain it to you.
But first, listen to the president in his own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The bottom line is this -- given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel, even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. Let me show you what the president is talking about.
This is a map of the eastern part of the United States. That's Alaska.
Just hold on to that for a second.
These areas in the beige are areas where oil has already been allowed. Oil drilling is already allowed. The areas in the red are where it's going to be new, from basically the tip of Delaware down to the middle of Florida.
There's a gap here. They won't allow oil drilling anywhere closer than 125 miles from the coast.
Now, take a look at Alaska. There are two issues here.
One is that this issue here in southwestern Alaska, this is not going to be allowed. This is going to be a protected area because of fisheries and whaling, but these areas in the north part of Alaska are going to be permitted for offshore oil drilling.
What this basically means is that the government is going to study the feasibility and then they lease out oil to companies. So, this is 130 million acres here in the Arctic Ocean, 167 million acres here in the Atlantic Ocean, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, smaller area, but possibly the richest in terms of oil. It's thought to hold about 3.5 billion barrels of oil.
Let me now show you the conservation side of it.
This is the increasing domestic energy production. The president also wants to talk about conservation. He made the announcement at a military base, and he's talking about the increased use of biofuels in military vehicles, purchasing 5,000 hybrid vehicles for government use and increasing the fuel-efficiency standards for new cars.
Tomorrow, by the way, the federal government will enact new fuel efficiency standards for new cars. We're going to be talking about that.
We're also going to be talking about what the Tea Party thinks of President Obama's initiative to allow more drilling. We're going to be live in Colorado. There's a gathering of the Tea Party.
The CNN Express is there. Ed Lavandera is there as well. We'll check in with him in a minute.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: More now on President Obama's ambitious plans for offshore oil drilling.
It can be a slippery slope for politicians. If you support it and people start signing -- your constituents will start sounding the alarm about environmental impact. If you oppose it, you get complaints about sky-high gas prices and dependence on foreign oil.
So, who could forget the calls to "Drill, baby, drill" from the 2008 presidential election? Well, they're echoing in the upcoming November vote. So we've summed up about 24 months of debate about this into about 70 seconds.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventy-five dollars, and that probably will last me about three or four days. That's ridiculous. The gas price is ridiculous.
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), ALASKA: And we will drill here. We'll drill now. And this is a matter of national security and energy independence and economic prosperity.
Drill, baby, drill.
AUDIENCE: Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill!
OBAMA: Now, believe me, if I thought there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their gas tanks by this summer or this year, or even the next few years, I would consider it. But it won't. And John McCain knows that.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: That's the kind of campaign that Senator Obama and his surrogates and his supporters want to engage in. I understand that, but it doesn't reduce the price of a gallon of gas by one penny. It doesn't achieve our energy independence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. Now, what are the Tea Partiers saying about President Obama's plan?
Ed Lavandera is with some of them in Grand Junction, Colorado. He's riding the CNN Express, and we're going alongside the Tea Party Express.
Ed, what are they saying? Are they into this whole "Drill, baby, drill" idea? Are they thinking this was a good move?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we've been asking several of the people here this morning at the rally here in Grand Junction, where we're at, and that rally is just wrapping up here this morning.
We expected to hear a little bit more openness to this idea, but really what we're finding, one person basically said -- who told us kind of tongue-in-cheek, said, "Finally one thing I can agree with, with President Obama." But for the most part, what we're hearing is great distrust. They don't actually believe the president will follow through on this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's reaching out to try and cover up for the health care bill, which most everybody I know doesn't want. I mean, he's going to try and turn around and put his good face on, and I don't think it's going to work this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: So, here we go. We've heard that repeatedly from people here as this morning's news has kind of filtered through this area in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Obviously, this is of great interest given the energy business that is located here in Grand Junction, Colorado. But, you know, we heard that repeatedly, Ali, that people said, yes, there's just a great mistrust of what the president's saying and didn't really think that, like as that man mentioned there in that sound bite, we heard that theme repeated over and over.
VELSHI: Ed, they planned this trip before the big push to get health care passed happened, and then it became about health care. Now that health care has passed, is the energy of those rallies -- what are they feeling like? Is it bigger than you'd expect? Is it smaller?
LAVANDERA: Well, the ones -- for the most part, the kickoff one last Saturday was a huge event. Thousands and thousands of people turned out. Sarah Palin, of course, the big speaker there.
VELSHI: Sure.
LAVANDERA: But these other rallies that have take been place in St. George, Utah, in Phoenix, and in Salt Lake City, now in Grand Junction, have had -- one of the ones we went to had close to 2,000 people. The last couple that we've been to have been around 500, a couple hundred people or so. This one's a little bit smaller.
They are packing up here shortly and headed to Denver tonight, so we'll see how that works. Some of these other rallies have been held during the days, so obviously people have to work and that sort of thing. But in Denver, it will be an interesting one to check out. It will be after work, and see what kind of turnout that they draw there.
The organizers here maintain that they are very happy with the turnout that they've been getting, but I think as they push forward and move closer to Washington, D.C., the numbers and the intensity of the turnout --
VELSHI: Yes.
LAVANDERA: -- will be important to keep an eye on just to get a sense of how much people are engaging and joining into this effort.
VELSHI: All right. Well, maybe when you get closer to Washington, D.C., do you mind if I join you for a couple days? I'll come on the bus, ride along with you.
LAVANDERA: Hey, we know you love the bus, Ali.
VELSHI: I do. I absolutely do.
But I also love hanging out with Ed Lavandera. It's always a good time when we're together.
Ed, good to see you. Thanks very much. We'll keep checking in with you.
Ed Lavandera.
All right. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In the case of this chicken farm, the community came first. It's an example of how we are "Building Up America."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Today in "Building Up America," a story of friends, neighbors, loyal customers, all pitching in to save a place close to their hearts and their stomachs. It's a real example of a community coming together to make these trying economic times a little less trying.
Dan Simon has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go. Look at that. That's pretty.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Apparently green eggs aren't just found in the Dr. Seuss classic. You almost don't want to eat it because it's so pretty.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I know.
SIMON: We're at the organic soul food chicken farm an hour from San Francisco. It's a business that stirs such passion that loyal customers refuse quite literally to let it go down in flames. After a fire killed 1,200 chicks and destroyed their coops last September, Alexis Koefed and her husband, Eric, thought the struggling farm they started just three years ago was finished.
(on camera): Did you think you were going to be out of business?
ALEXIS KOEFED, CHICKEN FARMER: Oh, I was convinced we were done. You know, we already were skating by.
Eric had lost his job. We were just living off of this land. That was a half month's income that went up in smoke and I thought I'll never recover from that. It's just too hard.
SIMON (voice-over): Starting the farm wasn't easy. Alexis and her husband had no farming experience. She was in marketing. He was a structural engineer. Yet, as soon as they began selling their chicken eggs, many chefs from the finest local restaurants, including Alice Waters from the nationally renowned Chez Panisse said, they were among the best they ever tasted.
ALICE WATERS, CHEZ PANISSE RESTAURANT: Grow something that really is tasty, I'll buy it all.
SIMON: The farm was saved not just because of its high-quality eggs and meat but also because of its philosophy.
WATERS: This egg comes from chickens that are probably crammed in cages, maybe eight, ten birds in a cage.
SIMON: She explains by showing us two different eggs, one from a chain grocery store and one of hers.
WATERS: And this is a chicken egg that she got to lay her egg how she felt like after being outside eating grass and bugs.
SIMON (on camera): This is what those chefs like so much, what you're seeing right here -- the chickens roam the fields freely and eat the natural grass, and that, they believe, makes for a higher quality egg, eggs they apparently could not live without because when the fire seemingly destroyed the business, her customers got together and said we're not going to let that happen.
BONNIE POWELL, FRIEND: We had a fancy auction, we had a raffle, we had several fund-raising dinners.
SIMON (voice-over): Bonnie Powell led the effort to raise $30,000 to keep the farm in business.
POWELL: It was kind of amazing how many people just felt touched by this, like, no, we can't let soul food farm die.
SIMON: The farm still struggles to make money, but Alexis loves her land, loves her way of life.
KOEFED: Thank you very much. My husband will be excited.
SIMON: You could say she's just fine putting all her eggs in one basket.
KOEFED: Thank you.
SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, Vacaville, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: OK. Let me bring you up to speed on some of the top stories we're following here at CNN.
Officials at a Massachusetts high school say they've disciplined and removed several more students in the Phoebe Prince case. The 15- year-old committed suicide in January after allegedly being bullied for months on end. Yesterday, prosecutors announced charges against nine students at the school.
A trial's just gotten under way for five Americans accused of plotting jihad in Pakistan. The men are accused of planning attacks against several specific targets there. There the so-called D.C. Five face life sentences if they're convicted.
And a Chechen rebel leader is claiming responsibility for Monday's twin suicide bombings in Moscow. In a video statement, he says he personally gave the orders to attack two subway stations there. At least 39 people were killed. His video appeared on a Web site known for posting separatist messages.
All right. We've been looking at those incredible pictures out of the Northeast. Cars, homes, even malls flooded. Well, in the opposite corner of the country, they've got the opposite problem. Chad's got details on it coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
VELSHI: All right. Listen to this. This is interesting. We've been following this all week.
It's the religion that is made famous and intriguing by Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, but some former Scientology insiders tell us of beatings and humiliation at the hands of the man in charge. You'll hear what the Church has to say about it, members of the Church leadership, including ex-wives of some of the accusers coming forward to flat-out call them liars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Yesterday, we told you about Marty Rathbun, a 27-year member and one of the highest-ranking leaders of the Church of Scientology. He left the church in 2005, but says that while he was there, the head of the church, David Miscavige, routinely beat him and other high-ranking members of the church. Rathbun said Miscavige brutally kicked, punched, and choked the church's international management team, the Sea Organization, in particular, Mike Rinder, the church's former spokesman.
Rathbun also says Miscavige encouraged a corporate culture in which other managers were expected to get physical. Rathbun admits that he assaulted subordinates, but says it was done with the encouragement of David Miscavige himself. As for the church, it vigorously denies the claims, asserting that Rathbun is a bald-faced liar because he assaulted members of the church.
As we continue our investigation, you'll hear from other high- ranking scientologists who said David Miscavige was the one behind the violence. The church emphatically denies it.
CNN's Anderson Cooper continues digging.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFF HAWKINS, FORMER SCIENTOLOGIST: Miscavige was always threats, bullying, haranguing people, verbal abuse, physical abuse. That was his game. He is a bully.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jeff Hawkins was a scientologist for 35 years. A marketing director for the church, he was a member of the Sea Organization. The group that runs church operations worldwide. He had dedicated his life to Scientology. A true believer, he earned just $50 a week and lived in church-provided communal housing with other Sea Org members in California.
(on camera): You've worked with Marty Rathbun. You've worked with Mike Rinder (ph). The church told us that they were the ones leading this reign of terror. That Marty was the one responsible for these beatings.
HAWKINS: Absolutely not true. Absolutely not true. David Miscavige was the one leading this whole physical violence kick, and it was him who was beating people up.
COOPER (voice-over): Hawkins, who left in 2005, says Miscavige attacked him several times, including once during a marketing meeting.
HAWKINS: He jumped up on the conference room table, like with his feet right on the conference room table, launched himself across the table at me -- I was standing -- battered my face and then shoved me down on the floor.
COOPER: Tom DeVocht was a construction manager for the church. He was only 12 years old when he joined. He left in 2005 because he says he could no longer accept Miscavige's violence.
TOM DEVOCHT, FORMER SCIENTOLOGIST: Dave asked me a question, and I couldn't tell you what the question is today, I don't remember. But the next thing I knew, I'm being smacked in the face, knocked down on the ground in front of all these people. This is the pope, you know, knocking me down to the ground.
COOPER: Amy Scobee, a scientologist for 27 years, helped run the Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, designed to cater to the needs of famous members like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. She says she also left in 2005, but distinctly remembers watching David Miscavige choke Mike Rinder, the church spokesman at the time.
AMY SCOBEE, FORMER SCIENTOLOGIST: He grabs Mike around the neck, swings around and is choking him and he's holding his neck. And Mike's just like grabbing the side of his chair and like struggling like not knowing what was going on. And his face is turning red and the veins are popping in his neck. And I'm going, what in the hell is going on.
COOPER: Steve Hall was a writer for the church who left in 2004. He says he saw Miscavige attack Mike Rinder again in November of 2003.
STEVE HALL, FORMER SCIENTOLOGY WRITER: He grabs Mike, Mike's head, with both his hands, throws Mike off his feet, because he's strong and he put his whole body into this. He smashed Mike's head against this cherry wood wall.
COOPER: Church of Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis insists that all these former scientologists are liars, bitter former Sea Organization members who were demoted from their positions by David Miscavige. He says Mike Rinder was asked about rumors of abuse two years ago by the BBC when he was still spokesman for the church.
TOMMY DAVIS, CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY SPOKESMAN: He had been asked these same allegations and one of his responses was, I'll tell you what, if you come up with that again and show up with another one of those crap allegations, I'm going to file a complaint.
COOPER: He's talking about this BBC interview in 2007, recorded by scientologists and posted on YouTube just before Mike Rinder left the church.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He says you -- that David Miscavige knocked you down on the ground.
MARTY RATHBUN, FORMER SCIENTOLOGY INSPECTOR GENERAL: That's absolute rubbish. Rubbish, rubbish. Not true. Rubbish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: But now that Mike Rinder is no longer working for David Miscavige, he says he was lying during that interview. He wouldn't appear on camera, but he told us that he was physically assaulted by David Miscavige some 50 times. He lied to the BBC, he says, because he didn't want to lose his career and his church.
That doesn't surprise Jeff Hawkins, who says when he was in the church he would have never spoken against Miscavige.
(on camera): If you want to stay in the church, you have to do what he says?
HAWKINS: That's right. That's right. He literally holds -- if you're a scientologist and you believe in Scientology and you believe that the only way to your spiritual salvation is through the levels of Scientology, then he literally holds the power of life and death over every scientologist cause he can say you're out of here. You will get no more Scientology services. You're done.
COOPER (voice-over): The church says Hawkins is out to destroy Scientology, adding that he supports an anti-Scientology movement called Anonymous that actively protests the church.
DAVIS: These are individuals who have proven not only that they will lie, but that they will get other people to lie. It's not much of a stretch for them to all get together, corroborate their stories, find some other people who have left years ago to try and corroborate it even more, and then come to the news media and attack the very person who removed them.
COOPER: The church provided us with dozens of affidavits from current and former church members, one-time colleagues of these former scientologists, even their ex-wives. All these affidavits swear David Miscavige never hurt anyone.
JENNY LINSON, TOM DEVOCHT'S EX-WIFE: I slept with Tom De Vocht for almost 20 years. I knew every inch of him. I never saw one scratch. I never saw one bruise. I never saw one black eye. Nothing. Nor did he complain about anything personally.
COOPER: That's Tom DeVocht's ex-wife Jenny Linson. She agreed just this week to be interviewed, along with the ex-wives of Marty Rathbun, Jeff Hawkins and Mike Rinder.
Mike Rinder's ex-wife, Catherine Bernardini, says he was never assaulted by David Miscavige.
CATHERINE BERNARDINI, MIKE RINDER'S EX-WIFE: I know every square inch of Mike Rinder's body. I know everything that's ever happened to him, every accident, every time he broke his wrist. I've been with him. We've been together all our lives. It's utterly ridiculous and it isn't true.
COOPER: Anne, you were married to Marty Rathbun?
ANNE JOASEM, MARTY RATHBUN'S EX-WIFE: Fifteen years. I know the man better than anybody else. Now you've got to understand, Marty Rathbun is a liar. He never mentioned it, OK.
COOPER: He says that he did mention it to you.
JOASEM: No, he did not. Absolutely not. It's a lie.
COOPER: Catherine, your ex-husband, Jeff Hawkins, says about you, that you have a heart of gold and that you're a good woman and that you stuck with him through some very trying times in Scientology. He does say that you were --
CATHERINE FRASER, JEFF HAWKINS' EX-WIFE: Whoa, hold on. He didn't have any trying times in Scientology. I don't -- it was the best time of his life.
COOPER (voice-over): She says Jeff Hawkins never said a thing to her about being hit.
(on camera): Did you tell anybody about this? Did you complain about it?
HAWKINS: No. No, no. You don't do that when you're inside the base. You don't do that.
COOPER: Why?
HAWKINS: Well, if you go against Miscavige, if you say anything against Miscavige or you do anything or you report on Miscavige, you're instantly off the base.
COOPER: And what does that mean to be off the base? It means
HAWKINS: You're on the rehabilitation project force or you're sent to a remote location or you're sent to Africa or Australia. You're just gotten rid of.
COOPER (voice-over): Marty Rathbun says he did tell his wife, but never complained to anyone else about Miscavige.
RATHBUN: He had the power so say, you're ex-communicated and you'll never see Scientology again. You'll never see your wife again. You'll never see Scientology again. I mean you've devoted 27 years to it and this guy could pull the plug just like that and say, you can't ever have it again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Over the past month we've spoken with former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder. He admits getting physical to some church members, but says he was told constantly to do so by David Miscavige. He said he wouldn't interview with us, because he promised his first interview to the BBC. Once that interview has aired, he says he would welcome an opportunity to come on our show and share his story.
Tonight on "AC360," former senior-level scientologists claims physical abuse at the very top of the church. Lies, all lies, say the church. The only abusers were the accusers. Get the whole story in "SCIENTOLOGY: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE", on "AC360" tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
All right, when we come back, I'll give you the top stories. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Checking some top stories.
As you saw here on CNN, President Obama is announcing plans to open vast areas of U.S. coastal waters to oil and natural gas drilling, including stretches of the East Coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska. The aim is to help end dependency on foreign oil. Voicing their anger, coastal residents and environmentalists.
In Rhode Island, people are battling the worst flooding in more than a century. President Obama has signed a disaster declaration for the state and emergencies have been declared in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Hundreds of people have been forced from their homes, three days of record-breaking rains have tapered to a drizzle, but forecasters warn the worst of the flooding is yet to come.
And officials at a Massachusetts high school say they've disciplined and removed several more students in the Phoebe Prince case. The 15-year-old committed suicide in January after allegedly being bully for months on end. Yesterday, prosecutors announced charges against nine students at the school.
All right, when we come back, we're going to talk about oil. It has set -- its settled at its highest price since 2008, October of 2008. The man you're looking at, T. Boone Pickens, he's a billionaire and he happens to have made a lot of money in oil, but he's a massive advocate for alternative energy. What does he think about President Obama's call for offshore drilling? Well, stay with me and you'll get the answer right from him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. The "The Ed Henry Segment" would normally be here, but as we told you, he's taking some much-deserved time off this week. He will be back on the program next week. And when we don't tell you this, I get all sorts of emails and Facebook quotes to say, where is Ed Henry. He's coming back.
All right, more now on President Obama's plan to open vast areas to oil and natural gas drilling. The plan the president announced would open about 167 million acres of the Atlantic Ocean, from Delaware to central Florida, also opening some parts in northern Alaska. You can see that on the right of your screen. We've moved Alaska to the right.
It is not a fast-track deal. It will be years. The Interior Department, which has to study the conditions and then they lease it out to oil companies. President Obama argues that this is needed to help end America's addiction to foreign oil.
So, it's a two-part announcement. Increasing domestic energy production and some conservation that he's announced today and tomorrow with some fuel-efficiency standards that will be announced.
But is offshore drilling the way to go? Remember what he said back during the campaign days? Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we're serious about dealing with energy, we've got to have a comprehensive package. We can explore new reserves, including offshore, but we can't drill our way out of the problem, because we only have 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. We use 25 percent of the world's oil. Even an oil man like T. Boone Pickens says it's not going to -- that's not the answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. If we're serious about dealing with energy, we've got to have a comprehensive package. Let's talk about what we're going to do about this. I want to talk to my good friend, T. Boone Pickens, who's joining us now from Dallas. He's the founder and chairman of BP Capital Management.
Boone, great to see you again. Thank you for being with us.
T. BOONE PICKENS, FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN, BP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: You bet, Ali.
VELSHI: Boone, many people know you because you've made your name as an oil man for many, many years, but a few years ago you had a change of heart and you decided that we can't just drill our way out of the problem. Tell me -- for those who haven't sort of followed very closely what you've been doing, you have sunk a lot of money, effort and energy into trying to change the way we consume energy in this country.
PICKENS: I have done that. That started in -- my "Pickens Plan" started in July of 2008. And that -- some changes have occurred since then, and, of course, I was going for the renewables, wind and solar, and I was also -- I wanted to use natural gas for transportation fuel. So, let's look at today where we are. That's two years ago.
VELSHI: Yep.
PICKENS: And what do we have? We got a natural gas price of $4.00 and wind is priced off the margin, and the margin is natural gas for power generation. So, it won't work at $4.00, so it's hard to do a wind deal.
VELSHI: Yes.
PICKENS: But the wind was not going to take you off of imported oil, and that was the biggest issue. As it unfolded and I learned more about what I was up to, that the security issue is what we've got to focus on and we've got to get off of the OPEC oil.
VELSHI: So, what's the best solution for that right now? And is what President Obama has announced the right thing to do, more offshore oil drilling?
PICKENS: Well, the only way you can get off of foreign oil -- and, remember, we're importing 14 billion barrels of oil a day, five of it comes from the Mideast. And that five is -- to me, that's the dangerous oil that we have coming to us.
But also, President Obama said that, at his nomination speech, he said in ten years, we will not be importing any oil from the Mideast. OK, what are we going to replace it with is the question. The only thing we have to replace it with is either natural gas or oil, and our oil reserves are not very good, like he said.
VELSHI: Yes.
PICKENS: Today, he said 2 percent of the oil in the world we have, and we're using 25 percent --
VELSHI: Yes.
PICKENS: -- of the oil every day.
OK, so go to natural gas, the way to go. And you have 4,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the -- VELSHI: But that assumes, Boone, that we use natural gas for more than what we just use it for now, more than just the generation of electricity and heating and that sort of thing. You're talking about using natural gas to power cars?
PICKENS: You power the heavy-duty, 18-wheelers, and you take those 8 million 18-wheelers over to natural gas and you'll cut OPEC in half. That's 2.5 billion barrels a day.
VELSHI: That is worth thinking about and talking about.
I want you to hang on, Boone, I love the lesson you give on this, the way you move some of our dependency on to natural gas and that means we import less oil. So hold that thought, I want to take a break so we pay our bills. We're going to come back on the other side, Boone, and you're going to give that lesson that you've given to me, you're going to give it to our viewers in just a minute.
Stay with us, Boone Pickens talking about how to change things.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. Another few minutes with T. Boone Pickens.
Boone, I want to ask you to explain your strategy here. You are saying that the opening up offshore drilling won't provide us with enough oil in enough time to get off dependency on imported oil in the United States. So your suggestion has been for some time, get our 18- wheelers, our big rigs, our commercial vehicles, off of gasoline by making them into natural gas or some alternative-energy consuming vehicles and we would just import less oil.
Is that a good starting point?
PICKENS: That's a good starting point, but I'm ready to drill on the offshore, I have no problem with that. But don't look for big reserves off the East Coast of the United States. One, you know, if you try to compare it to the Gulf of Mexico -- Texas and Oklahoma, and then you go off into the Gulf -- there are big oil fields all over the south Texas and south Louisiana, but off the coast of Virginia, South Carolina, there's no oil fields onshore there. Why do you think they're going to be big oil fields offshore?
And the shelf in the Gulf of Mexico goes out 600, 700 miles, and here the shelf you're, you know, 200 miles out off the Virginia coast, you're about in 12,000, 15,000 feet of water. So, there isn't this great expectation, unless you don't understand what we have to look with -- look at, to be able to find big oil fields out there.
But anyway, you've got --
VELSHI: Go ahead.
PICKENS: You're overwhelmed with natural gas is where you are. It's cleaner, it's cheaper, it's abundant, and it's ours. Why not use it? It's the thing to use. Go to the 8 million 18-wheelers. If you want to go further with natural gas as a transportation fuel, then that's after you do the 18-wheelers. Do those, and then see where you want to go.
VELSHI: And is that viable? And is anybody heading in the direction doing what you're suggesting?
PICKENS: Yes, they are. They are headed in that direction. It's happening very fast. And -- and all and I think, you know, you can incentivize your truckers so they're happy with it. They like the domestic fuel and all.
And so, you know, this is going to happen. It's going to happen. I don't understand why we can't lay it out very clearly that we only have one resource that solves the problem? If you only have one resource, then you're going to have to use that resource.
VELSHI: I hear you.
Boone, good to talk to you, as always. Thanks for joining me on the show. We'll talk more about this. When you're in Atlanta, come by and then we can use the white board and have you actually do that demonstration that do you on TV, because it's really good. Good to see you.
PICKENS: Good to see you, Ali.
VELSHI: T. Boone Pickens.
All right, when we come back, I want to talk to you about some real hope for the people of Haiti, coming to them in the form of mangos.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Time now for "The X-Y-Z of It."
Earlier, I showed you a discussion I had yesterday with the prime minister of Haiti and the CEO of the Coca-Cola Company describing a new initiative called "Operation Haiti Hope." Coke has created a new drink under its Odwalla brand made from Haitian mangos and all the proceeds from of the drink will go back to Haiti.
But it's more than that. For three years, Coke will buy all of Haiti's mango production, bolstering a key industry in Haiti and creating desperately needed jobs. The hope is that in three years there will be more mango groves, more workers, better equipment, better roads, and that that spur other industries.
But there's more than that still. This idea started at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The CEO of Coke and the head of the Inter-American Development Bank and others thought it made sense, and seven weeks later it was a reality. We've seen plenty of corporations doing the wrong thing. This isn't just the right thing, it's the right thing done at the speed of light, which is what Haiti needs.
But it's more than that, too. For me, it's a sign that the real rebuilding of Haiti is underway. I asked the prime minister whether in five or ten years, we'll see a better Haiti than the one that existed before the January earthquake. He told me he thinks, or hopes, that within three years we'll see a better Haiti, but it depends on real companies creating a real market for real goods that people want to buy, and that truly means hope for Haiti.
That's my "X-Y-Z." Here's Rick.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: There are, like, 61 different types of mangos, by the way.
VELSHI: There are?
SANCHEZ: As a guy that grew up in south Florida, I can tell you all about that.
