will Smiley hit the gas?

November 1, 2008

T. Boone Pickens may have gotten the biggest boost yet for his plan to meet 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs with wind power and use the natural gas saved in the process for transportation fuel. According to a Sept. 17 e-mail communiqué from the Pickens organization, Wal-Mart Stores CEO H. Lee Scott has commissioned a study to determine the feasibility of converting the retailer's 8,500 trucks from diesel to natural gas.

In the e-mail, the Pickens group confirmed that the oilman and alternative-energy entrepreneur had met with Scott and other Wal-Mart executives earlier in the month to outline details of his plan. Following the presentation, Scott ordered a study to explore the requirements and potential costs of converting Wal-Mart's dieselpowered fleet to compressed natural gas.

Wal-Mart executives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

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Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.

will Smiley hit the gas?

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