What do you think of a Texas oil man coming up with a plan to use alternative energies and end our addiction to foreign oil?
I think that’s absolutely the way we have to go. Annapolis began looking at ways we could end our dependence on foreign oil years ago. We were way ahead of the bandwagon. And our council passed a resolution to that effect.
How have you implemented that resolution?
This city has been very progressive relative to environmental issues for a long time. We have very progressive green building legislation that went into effect January 1. We have some hybrids. We bought them to change to smart cars.
So you’ve been building a fleet of hybrid vehicles?
Yes, but the big opportunity that we have [is that] the state of Maryland has a major natural gas station that they have built here in Annapolis.
What are they using it for?
Absolutely nothing at the present time.
But that’s a perfect fit.
It is. We have 26 buses, and then we have all of the state police and all the fire vehicles and all of our police vehicles, so we have quite a few vehicles that when we purchased, we purchased relative to alternative energy. But as I said, we have the opportunity to convert them to natural gas now that we have this gas station. So hopefully, we can work out something with the state to make things happen.
Let’s hope so.
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED, AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE