Research Initiative Launched on the Corporate Board's Role in Energy Security

New Haven, Conn., June 16, 2011—Corporate directors’ key role in overseeing energy risks and advancing U.S. energy security will get leading-edge attention through a new research program launched today at the Yale School of Management’s Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance. Ira Millstein, Theodore Nierenberg Adjunct Professor in Corporate Governance, announced the initiative in collaboration with prominent investor T. Boone Pickens, author of the Pickens Plan, a public policy blueprint to enhance energy security. The two unveiled the project at the annual Yale Governance Forum.

"It is government’s job to shape the big strategic policies that move the U.S. rapidly to energy independence. But corporate boards have critical business stakes in tapping energy that is competitive on cost, secure, reliable, and renewable," said Pickens. "This project opens up a vital, private-sector ‘second front’ in the Pickens Plan by exploring ways corporate boards can oversee a shift to domestic and sustainable energy sources."

"Energy disruptions linked to price volatility, accidents, or political instability focus attention on the responsibility of corporate boards to watchdog energy risks and opportunities," said Millstein. "The time is right for high-level research and insights that equip boardrooms to drive private-sector solutions."

A planning phase of the Millstein Center’s board energy risk program will be a roundtable of thought-leader corporate chairs and CEOs, investor executives, and experts, to be convened in fall 2011. Deliberations will aim to identify research and data gaps as well as effective boardroom practices and relevant investor stances. Both Pickens and Millstein will serve as conveners of the roundtable. Among expected first-phase topics: a call for academic papers, case studies, and an authored working paper outlining options for corporate boards and investors to address energy risks.

About the Millstein Center: The Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management is a leading global resource for testing, challenging, and advancing the premise that corporations should and can serve society. The Center focuses on the inter-relationship of management, the board of directors, shareholders, and stakeholders in creating long-term corporate shareholder value in today’s complex and competitive economy, while at the same time meeting the heightened expectations of society. The Center pursues its mission by convening events; sponsoring empirical research; generating policy briefings; building market capacity by developing training, databases and institutions; and teaching and student interaction.

About the Pickens Plan: Unveiled on July 8, 2008, by T. Boone Pickens, the Pickens Plan is a detailed solution for ending the United States’ growing dependence on foreign oil. That year, when oil prices reached US$140/barrel, America was spending about US$700 billion for foreign oil, equaling the greatest transfer of wealth in history. That figure has decreased some while oil prices have retreated, but the U.S. is still dependent on foreign nations for nearly 70 percent of its oil, representing a continuing national security and national economic threat. The plan calls for expanding the use of domestic renewable resources, such as wind and solar, in power generation, and using our abundant supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel alternative to OPEC oil. More than 1.6 million people have joined the Pickens Army through the website www.pickensplan.com, which has had over 20 million hits. For more information on the Pickens Plan please visit our website www.pickensplan.com. Boone can be followed on Twitter @boonepickens.

Contact:
Stephen Davis, Executive Director, Millstein Center
+1 203 432 9689; stephen.m.davis@yale.edu