How do you increase U.S. employment? Go to the private sector, specifically the oil and gas sector, T. Boone Pickens told CNBC Friday.
"There are jobs in the oil and gas industry, good jobs, and Washington has not said one word about it," the BP Capital management chief executive said. "They have not focused on where it is and where these jobs are being created, all for the good of the country."
"I think the oil and gas industry stands on its own two feet and sits on its own bottom," he added.
He said he "went to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, two weeks ago today and I can tell you everybody that wants to work has a job. They are all doing well there. Around the country there are jobs and the industry providing the jobs is the oil and gas industry."
Pickens' plan to provide cheaper, U.S.-based natural gas to 18-wheelers, which he has pushed for years, has yet to come up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. He said the plan would create 400,000 jobs while making this country more self-sufficient.