Israeli leads effort to ‘switch from the pump to the plug’
Tom Friedman had a recent column about Shai Agassi, an Israeli entrepreneur Friedman describes as a mixture of Henry Ford and Yitzhak Rabin. Agassi aims to revolutionize the way that cars are powered in Israel (and indirectly, the world). Friedman describes Agassi’s company, Better Place, as follows:
Better Place, and its impressive team would run the smart grid that charges the cars and is also contracting for enough new solar energy from Israeli companies — 2 gigawatts over 10 years — to power the whole fleet. “Israel will have the world’s first virtual oilfield in the Negev Desert,” said Agassi. His first 500 electric cars, built by Renault, will hit Israel’s roads next year.
His goal, said Agassi, is to make his electric car “so cheap, so trivial, that you won’t even think of buying a gasoline car.” Once that happens, he added, your oil addiction will be over forever.
Friedman also draws a parallel between Agassi and oil-man turned oil-iconoclast, T. Boone Pickens. A major distinction in their two efforts is their respective governments’ support (or lack thereof). In Israel, the government is backing Agassi’s efforts, being fully motivated to lessen that country’s dependence on foreign oil and to take a leadership position in the clean technology industry. However, here in the United States, our government still cannot pass meaningful energy reform.
Friedman, paraphrasing Pickens, notes that “Congress must adopt clear, predictable policies, with long term tax incentives and infrastructure, so thousands of investors can jump into clean power, [or] we’ll never get the scale we need to break our addiction.”
Of course both Friedman and Pickens are correct. The question now is: will the federal government get behind leaders like Al Gore and Pickens, like Israel has with Agassi, or will it continue to get in the way?
- Similar Posts:
- Better Place to lead efforts to develop EV network in Australia
- Agassi: cars could be given away for free
- Better Place to ship electric cars from US to Israel within weeks
Comments
Please contribute to the discussion. No need to agree with the post or other commenters, but please be constructive and respectful.
-
Private Leaders
