Dash of Calabash

Free-market types have good reason to worry when they hear about pro-environment CEOs.  After all, the trend right now is for CEOs to compromise their own companies’ bottom lines by engaging in corporate philanthropy, especially questionable efforts to combat global warming.

That’s why this interview with T.J. Rodgers is so refreshing.  Rodgers is the CEO of the company which owns solar-power manufacturer SunPower, and he is proud to be considered “green.”  However, he despises corporate philanthropy, and agrees with Milton Friedman that charity should be an individual endeavor and not a corporate one.  He makes a great case that a company can be pro-environment without hurting its profits.  He also separates fact from fiction in the global warming debate; analyzes the greenhouse gas plans of McCain, Gore, and Obama; and compares different alternative energy sources (to quote Rodgers, “Ethanol?  Total waste.”).