At ARPA-E Summit, FedEx CEO Smith Sounds an Optimistic Note
by Yoni Cohen (GreenTechMedia) The United States absolutely, positively has to wean itself off foreign oil.
“Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, activity for activity, it is hard to find a thing the United States has done that is more effective than ARPA-E,” said FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith at the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.
In an optimistic, forward-looking address, Smith spoke passionately about the strategic and economic importance of America weaning itself off foreign oil.
“We burn about 19 billion barrels of oil per day. About 50 to 60 percent of that is imported. Some of that comes from friendly locations. But 90 percent of proven worldwide reserves are owned … by governments that do not share the same values as the United States,” said Smith. “We at FedEx have long believed that … our dependence on imported petroleum constitutes the country’s largest security and economic risk.”
…“The aviation industry is totally committed to reducing energy consumption for both cost and environmental reasons,” said Smith. “The energy industry has demonstrated drop-in biofuels. The Navy has flown the ‘Green Hornet’ [an F/A-18 fueled by a biofuel blend]. KLM and Virgin have flown flights with drop-in biofuels. There is no question that you can produce highly efficient biofuels. It is simply a matter of scalability and cost.”READ MORE and VIDEO interview (TVEyes Media Monitoring)
