Former oil company exec takes on global warming

ANN ARBOR -- For the first 10 years or so that Steve Percy traveled around the country talking about climate change issues, his message was simple: It's happening.

Now, the former CEO of the oil company BP America has a slightly different message: Those people and companies who aren't working to combat climate change will be left behind.

"It's starting to manifest itself in what customers are asking for," he said. "If you're a business and not thinking about these things, likely your competitors are and (they) are going to beat you."

Percy was on a panel of politicians, scientists and business owners who gathered at the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium for a climate change solutions discussion. Several hundred community members and college students turned out for event.

It was hosted by Focus the Nation as one of over 1,600 events taking place across the country Thursday night to educate citizens about global warming and possible solutions. Founded in 2006 by Eban Goodstein, an economics professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., the grassroots, nonpartisan organization fosters discussion about how to mitigate climate change.

Several of the speakers Thursday night directly challenged the college students in the audience.

"You're going to have to kick our butts (on this issue)," said state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township. "Without your pressure we're going to coast.
"We are making timid, incremental change."

Gary Was, the director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, said the college students' generation will make the changes, changes that might be slow in coming.

"We don't have a solution we can put in place today," he said, but there are several good demonstration projects under way that can help point the way to a solution.

The speakers' challenge resonated with U-M junior Mary Anderson of Detroit.

"I think a lot of my friends really understand this issue," she said after the program.

"There's no real argument about whether this is happening. It's all about how we solve these problems."

The emphasis of those fighting climate change has changed over time, said Lauren Bigelow, managing director of Cleantech Network, a company that serves as a link between investors and so-called clean technology companies.

"It's more about zero percent impact than cleaning it up," she said.