Monday, April 02, 2012

FedEx to Energy Efficiency

Oil Scare Turns FedEx Onto Energy Efficiency
April 2, 2012 - The rising cost of oil isn't just a hit to the family budget. Businesses are hurt, too. Few are more affected than firms like FedEx. It deploys nearly 700 planes and tens of thousands of trucks and vans every day to deliver packages around the world. And few business leaders are more focused on finding alternatives to petroleum-based fuels than FedEx CEO Fred Smith.

Shortly after Smith founded Federal Express, the 1973 Arab Oil embargo almost killed it. The experience imprinted Smith with a keen interest in the price and availability of oil.

"That would be an understatement," Smith laughs. "For sure."

snip

"To me, the most tragic thing is to think about these families that lost these 5,000 wonderful young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan," he says. "The human cost of this reliance on petroleum from unstable and unfriendly parts of the world has cost this country dearly and we need to work as hard as we can to solve this problem." read more>>>

On Energy Policy, Another Shift For Romney
April 2, 2012 - The GOP candidates for president have seized on high gas prices as a line of attack against President Obama, largely saying the answer is more domestic oil drilling. But one of those candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, used to have a position at least somewhat at odds with that.

snip

Back in May of 2006, in the midst of another gas price shock, then-Gov. Romney came to a conclusion similar to Obama's. According to an account from the time in the Patriot Ledger newspaper, Romney objected to a temporary suspension of the state's gas tax, saying he'd rather press for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The article has him saying, "I'm very much in favor of people recognizing that these high gasoline prices are probably here to stay."

A month later, on the Charlie Rose show, Romney said that the issue of the overuse of energy in our country is a "major issue" and in particular the overuse of oil.

"Look, if we could somehow magically wave a wand over our automobile fleet and replace all of our cars with the current best technology, 35 mpg-type technology, we'd be saving an extraordinary amount of oil," Romney said. read more>>>

No comments: