Tell us your thoughts about the Pickens Plan.
I’ll repeat for you what I said in August at the Democratic National Convention in Denver when Boone and I participated in a panel discussion with John Podesta. At the time, I told the audience, “the fact that I am on stage with T. Boone Pickens just goes to show how absolutely dysfunctional our government has been,” and I meant it. For decades, our country has lacked an energy plan of any sort, and the consequences have become all too evident.

What do you think about a lifelong oil man leading the way on using renewable energies?
Carl Pope and Boone Pickens don’t agree about everything. I think I can fairly safely predict that we don’t. As I said in the appearance I did with Boone in Denver, that Boone and I agree about the Pickens Plan is not really good news because anything Boone and I agree about should have been done long ago.

Since Denver, you and Boone have participated in two Teleforums with Sierra Club members.
Not quite. The vast majority of those who called in to listen to me and to Boone discuss energy independence were not Sierra Club members, which is remarkable. Let me explain.

Prior to our discussions, several hundred thousand people got a robocall from me. These were people who we’d picked because they were interested in civic life. They voted regularly, but they were not Sierra Club members or environmentalists necessarily. We called them at dinnertime. When they picked up the phone they got a robocall from Carl Pope. Most of them don’t know who Carl Pope is. Fortunately, more of them knew who Boone Pickens was. I asked, “Would you like to join Carl Pope and Boone Pickens for a town hall meeting to talk about new energy solutions?” About 45 percent of the people who picked up the phone participated in those teleforums. That’s 27,000 people. Let me tell you that is just an absolutely staggering response to a robocall.

What does this sort of a response tell you?
It shows you two things. Boone has reached a lot of people. But it also shows me that people really care about this issue. People actually want somebody to connect the dots for them.

What sort of progress is being made?
Mixed reviews. On September 16 the House voted on a bill that was kind of an Everything American energy bill [H.R. 6899 – Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall]. It had oil shale in it. It had offshore drilling in it. It had clean energy in it. It had natural gas in it. It was what Boone says he’s for. It passed, which is the good news.

The bad news is that 189 members of the House voted against it. They voted against it because they don’t want solve the problem. They voted to send it back to committee because it was everything American, and they just want offshore oil drilling. They want to pretend we can drill our way out of this crisis. “Drill, Baby, Drill” is a slogan. It’s not a solution. It shows you how badly our politics is broken.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED, AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE