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T. Boone Pickens: AT&T chair rates top Texan consideration

03:51 PM CST on Monday, November 8, 2010

Decades ago, my father told me, "A fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan. Son, your mom and I are concerned we have a fool with no plan." I'd like to think I have proved them wrong, but it's a great analogy for the energy problems now facing our country.

We are a nation without an energy plan, and we're fools for not moving to solve that issue.

Our dependence on foreign oil has skyrocketed since the 1970s (despite eight presidents pledging to solve the problem). Our escalating dependence on foreign oil is a three-legged-stool problem. It jeopardizes our economy, our environment and our national security.

In making my nomination for 2010 Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year, I have found a genius with a plan: AT&T chairman and chief executive Randall L. Stephenson.

First, some context. There are reasons we've grown dangerously dependent on foreign oil: It's cheap, and we've lacked leadership. For more than two years I crisscrossed the nation pushing a solution: Get on our own resources. That means using more solar, wind and other renewables to generate power, and dramatically expanding use of domestic natural gas in transportation and power generation. You cannot solve the problem without a focus on transportation. It accounts for well over two-thirds of our oil use.

That's where Stephenson shines. He demonstrated incredible leadership last year by announcing his company would spend up to $565 million to replace more than 15,000 gasoline-powered vehicles with a fleet powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) and hybrid engines.

Stephenson says the switch to a CNG and hybrid fleet will lower AT&T's fuel costs while reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. The Dallas-based company, AT&T, plans to buy about 8,000 CNG vehicles over five years and replace more than 7,000 passenger cars with alternative-fuel options ­ like hybrids and all-electric cars – over a 10-year period.

Stephenson followed up his commitment with action this year. In 2010, the company deployed its 2,000th CNG vehicle. It also introduced its first all-electric utility vehicle, pushing the total number of alternative fuel vehicles over 2,700. This year Automotive Fleet ranked AT&T fourth in the Top 50 Commercial Hybrids list and 20th among the Top 50 Green Fleets.

Stephenson says companies like AT&T have an "obligation to make investments that will drive the nation's economic growth and productivity." AT&T's action is a giant step forward by American business to help shape a new energy future for our nation.

If, over the next seven years, we replaced all heavy diesel trucks with trucks running on natural gas, our need for OPEC oil would be cut by half. In that time batteries, hybrids, and other alternative fuel vehicles would be widely available, reducing our need for imported oil even further. A U.S. industry producing natural gas vehicles would add jobs immediately, especially in regions that have been hit hardest by the recession.

Stephenson's leadership has spurred others to action. Verizon is also expanding its use of domestically fueled fleet vehicles.

That is the kind of public and private leadership Dallas provides, and the nation needs.

Under Stephenson's leadership, AT&T also launched the largest education initiative in company history – AT&T Aspire – a $100 million philanthropic program to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness. As a National Executive Board member of the Boy Scouts of America, he also served as chairman of the BSA's 100th Anniversary Celebration this year

Randall Stephenson is making a difference in the war to make our nation more secure and less dependent on foreign oil. In my book, that makes him a dynamic Texan of the Year.

Legendary energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens is founder and chairman of BP Capital in Dallas. You can follow him on Twitter @boonepickens.

Buck