Innovation
Winds of change
T. Boone Pickens talks sustainability and how every business can make a difference
By Jessica Tremayne
Smart Business Dallas | February 2009
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In 2010, T. Boone Pickens will receive his first order of wind turbines, a step he hopes will set a new era of energy efficiency into
motion. Pickens, the iconic founder and chairman of BP Capital
Management and the star of his own commercials touting the
“Pickens Plan” and the benefits of wind energy, is hoping to ride
the winds of change to a more sustainable future for America.
Pickens is advocating for a commitment to wind energy production on a large scale through tax subsidies and other measures.
This will interject more renewable energy into localized power
grids, and Pickens estimates that 2,000 jobs will be created initially — and grow to 138,000 over time. He says committing to
wind energy will get the U.S. out of the current economic downturn and will increase security while reducing costs. Although
Pickens has made his fortune in oil, he says decreasing foreign
oil dependency by creating a renewable energy network will
place U.S. businesses in a better financial position. Smart
Business spoke with Pickens about sustainability and how all
businesses can profit from investing in it.
Q. How can a business improve its bottom line by investing
in sustainable energy?
I don’t know that they can immediately. It’s going to take
several years to get renewable energy into the system to a
level that will make a difference. It will eventually lower the
price of your power. It’s just going to take some time for that
to happen. Other sustainable practices will suffice until then.
Q. Will the businesses that haven’t invested in
sustainability now lose future benefits?
The hope is that a business won’t be able to say, ‘I’m on
renewable, and my competitor isn’t.’ Hopefully, a more efficient power grid will be implemented and all energy sources
will be incorporated. But you have to be planning ahead, and
if you haven’t already, you have to start that plan today. To
quote my father, ‘A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius
with no plan any day of the week.’
Q. How can CEOs bettereducate themselves on
sustainability in ways that will help their industries
in the future?
They need to know we have to do something about our own
energy and [that] there are several components to the plan
for it to be successful. Sustainability isn’t just wind or solar.
You’re going to have to get off the foreign oil, but wind and
solar do not replace the foreign oil. Foreign oil isn’t used for
power generation, so we’re going to have to put it together
and use all of them to have a more sustainable business.
Replacing foreign oil with natural gas will be step one. This
should be something in businesses’ plans to work their way
into understanding what the future holds. Using natural gas
for transportation fuel will reduce the need for foreign oil.
Q. What will it take for the majority of businesses
to operate at a sustainable level?
The government is going to have to show that they’re
ready to go with different opportunities in energy. With
that, they’re going to have to put a production tax credit
in, which would show the world that we are behind wind
and solar. When they do that and put a 10-year tax credit
in, that will bring the manufacturers into the area to use
the forms of energy and help better develop the process.
But if things work according to plan, you’ll be getting your
energy from a source that pulls from all energy sources
and businesses won’t be able to pick and choose what
they use. This source will include renewable, coal, natural
gas and nuclear. This will come with upgrading to a
national grid. You wouldn’t be able to identify which one’s
which — it would be a single energy source that it is
pulled from. A national grid upgrade could make energy
efficiency 20 percent better than what it is now.
Q. Is the issue less pressing for businesses that
were pushing for sustainable energy now that gas
prices have decreased?
That way of thinking won’t work because we’re importing almost 70 percent of our crude oil now, regardless of
what price we pay for it. If you’re paying $70 a barrel, it’s
half the cost it was, but the percentage of imports remains
the same, and I perceive that to be the most critical problem that the country has from a security standpoint. We’re
relying on half of the oil we import coming from the
Mideast and Africa, the two most unstable places in the
world.
