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| Turner and Pickens with Press Club President Mark Hamrick |
“I’m a little greener and a little cleaner,” Ted Turner said of himself in relation to T. Boone Pickens while discussing alternative energy policy during a luncheon at the National Press Club Tuesday afternoon. “My main concern is the survival of the human race.”
The two businessmen turned philanthropists were on hand with a plea and a pledge to help end the nation’s dependence on foreign fuel sources, leveraging their political capital and pocketbooks to promote an adoption of alternative fuels.
“Ted is brighter green than I am,” conceded Pickens. “My primary focus is energy security for America. I’ll take anything American in place of OPEC oil.”
While Pickens’ plan calls for a mix of alternatives, including natural gas for transportation, Turner favors wind and the sun, which is “free, sitting there, every day, going to waste.” The men called for both government and private action to create a national energy policy plan for the future, and underscored the need to recognize climate change as a real and serious issue.
“I go to bed at night praying for clean coal,” Turner joked with a nod to Pickens. “I’ve seen so many ads for it they are convincing me that it might be a possibility.”
