Smith advocates carbon tax at green forum
FedEx CEO Frederick W. Smith spoke out on 20 April in favour of a wide range of solutions to make America greener.
FedEx CEO Frederick W. Smith spoke out on 20 April in favour of a wide range of solutions to make America greener.
Smith advocated a carbon tax, but not cap-and-trade legislation favoured by President Barack Obama, as well as more offshore drilling, nuclear power and tax credits to boost hybrid and electric vehicles, in a bid to make America more sustainable and less reliant on foreign oil.
Speaking at the Global Green Initiative’s “Transportation in Transformation” conference at the University of Memphis, Smith promoted the agenda of the Energy Security Leadership Council. The group of military and business leaders sees energy independence as a prime national security issue.
The council’s agenda calls for electrifying the short-haul transportation of people and products, ramping up biofuels for long-haul transportation, maximising domestic fossil fuel production and leaning on allies to help protect world oil supplies.
“It just makes good business sense,” he said. “It makes good financial sense, and it makes good sense from the standpoint of the United States’ well-being.”
A hybrid electric FedEx Express van parked outside the institute featured FedEx’s EarthSmart logo. The branding effort calls attention to the company’s industry-leading fleet of hybrid electric vehicles and other ecologically friendly initiatives.
Sam Snyder, an engineer in FedEx’s global vehicles unit, said the van is one of 172 in the FedEx Express fleet, including two in service in Memphis. The 700-cubic-foot-capacity van gets 10-12 miles per gallon, compared to 7-10 miles per gallon for a non-hybrid.
While UPS has alternative fuel vehicles and other delivery companies are ordering hybrid trucks, Snyder said FedEx hybrids have about 3.5 million miles travelled in five years.
“That’s a number nobody will reach anytime soon,” he said. “That’s where the rubber meets the road.”
In his speech, Smith said the next wave of low-emission vehicles will be plug-in electrics and hybrids that use on-board diesel motors to recharge batteries. The hybrid will be able to travel 40 miles on a charge, covering the average daily travels of 75% of Americans, and have ranges of 250-400 miles including subsequent charges.
Smith said a carbon tax would be better than a cap-and-trade approach to reducing carbon emissions. Cap-and-trade would place limits on emissions region by region and allow emission credits to be traded or sold.
“We would support, if the Congress in the United States wants to do it, a carbon tax,” he said. “It’s straightforward. It’s clear. It’s directly related to the sin, which is the production of CO2, the burning of carbon. I agree very much with former vice president Al Gore, who said, ‘Tax carbon, which you don’t want to have, and reward work, which you do want to have.’ Tax carbon and reduce the payroll tax.”
Smith also said:
On nuclear energy: “Anybody who’s concerned with national security, our balance of payments, with our national economic security, should be a proponent of nuclear power. It’s efficient, safe …”
