T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, told a U.S. Senate panel that dependence on imported oil threatens national security, and he urged Congress to pass tax breaks to support his plan to build wind farms.

Pickens has spent millions on television and radio advertisements to build support from the American public for his ``Pickens Plan.'' Today he brought his proposal to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Pickens, 80, said America's role as a global superpower is threatened by its need to spend almost $700 billion a year on foreign oil, which he said is four times the annual cost of the Iraq war and the largest transfer of wealth in U.S. history.

``We are paying for the war against ourselves and we have got to stop it, some way, somehow,'' Pickens said in his first appearance before Congress since he revealed his plan.

Pickens told the panel he is building the largest wind farm in the world in Sweetwater, Texas. The farm will produce 4,000 megawatts of energy, equivalent to two and one-half nuclear power plants, Pickens said.

Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, praised Pickens' plan as ``bold'' and a ``higher vision'' while stopping short of specifically endorsing it.

At the heart of Pickens' plan is using wind for electricity, which would free natural gas that could be used for cars. Pickens said his plan would replace 38 percent of the foreign oil the nation imports.

Pickens, founder and chairman of Dallas-based BP Capital LLC, is the largest shareholder of Clean Energy Fuels, a natural- gas supplier for bus and truck fleets.

Lagging Other Nations

Pickens said other nations, such as Germany, are ahead of the U.S. when it comes to using wind power for electricity.

``And Germany doesn't even have good wind. We have fabulous wind,'' he said.

The U.S. Energy Department said in May that wind could account for 20 percent of the nation's power supplies by 2030, delaying new coal-fueled power plants and lowering emissions of greenhouse gases. Wind may provide more than 1 percent of U.S. power this year.

While Pickens' plan would address some environmental concerns, the Texas financier said his first concern is not global warming but the threat to national security from U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

``We are more fragile today from a national security standpoint than we have been since World War II,'' he told the panel.

Alaska, Offshore Drilling

Pickens said he supports drilling in Alaska and in coastal waters, a strategy that's been blocked by environmental concerns. ``I'm saying do everything you can to get off foreign oil,'' he said.

Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, praised this approach. ``What you have to say is music to my ears,'' he said.

Imports accounted for 65 percent of oil and oil products consumed in the U.S. last year, up from 36 percent in 1973, Energy Department data show.

In addition to extending oil production tax credits, Pickens also called on the federal government to clear the way for extending power grids to transmit the electricity generated by new wind farms.