At 8:40 PM 10/11/4, RC Macaulay wrote: >BlankThe plan reads and flows well. I always enjoy a well thought out plan >composed by someone that can put thoughts to words.
Thanks. I should mention that the plan was developed only as a starting point, to demonstrate some things that might be possible if a long range plan can be developed and implemented outside the stormy vagaries of political influence. > >Suggestions for meditation. > >I live in Texas, I am 77 and have many friends in the oil business. The " >business" has a get rich mentality that permeates every aspect of the >petroleum industry. A proper word has been coined... ENRON. The question >becomes.. how do you enact the plan using " energy people" ? Where do >you find the people to make the plan work without recruiting " energy >people" ? > >Richard I have had a little exposure to "energy people" having been one myself for a while. 8^) I've worked as an operations research analyst for a major gas company research organization, and also worked for Sohio-BP here in Alaska during the pipeline construction days. Never worked with roughnecks or wildcatters, but the groups I've worked with worked hard, played hard, and drank plenty too much, and were a talented bunch. It was fun but I'm glad I was young enough to survive it. 8^) I would expect that with billions of dollars out for the grabbing there would be a lot of good engineers and entrepreneurs out to get it, whatever it takes, be it windmills, geothermal, or whatever. That goes for oil patch folks and others. The greed motive helps I think and in fact is an essential ingredient in the idea... assuming the proposals that result (or at least selected) are legitimate and realistic. The problem then for the foundation itself would be hiring dedicated and talented people that could sit by evaluating proposals and performance while other folks made all the big money and had all the fun. The good news I think is that it should take comparatively few people to do the foundation work. The proposed foundation would hopefully be pretty small and have a low overhead, especially in initial years. My experience with folks is that if top management is clear in its goals and constraints, and exemplary in its behavior, good people get made and attracted. If management is rotten, good folks flee, and the whole barrel gets rotten. The problem then seems to me to mainly boil down to finding a few good executives. Such executives will be where you find them, be it oil patch or not. Hopefully, beyond that, regular audits and reasonable controls would prevent another ENRON. Regards, Horace Heffner
