The Battalion
yd. 87 No. 85 GSRS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, February 1,1988
rogen seen as future fuel
ement
By Jeff Pollard
Staff Writer
With oil and gas supplies shrink-
B ™ and the use of these as fuels de-
>ying more and more of the envi-
nment every day, some feel a new
el needs to be found that will re-
ice the world’s dependence on
ese fuels and that is readily avail
able.
I Hydrogen will be this fuel of the
future, said John Appleby, director
of the Center for Electrochemical
Svstems and Hydrogen Research at
■exas A&M.
I Hydrogen is clean, renewable and
does not have the harmful effects of
fossil fuels, he said.
Four research centers, including
the A&M center, have received
$600,000 each from the U.S. De
partment of Energy to explore the
possibilities of hydrogen as this new
fuel.
Theoretically, hydrogen could be
used to make solar cells that are up
to 60 percent energy-efficient, Ap
pleby said. This is impressive when
compared to the 7 percent to 12 per
cent efficiency level of the solar cells
available today. This means that
eventually solar-hydrogen fuel cells
can be used to perform any task re
quiring power, from lighting a city to
running a car.
The other centers involved in the
project are the Hawaii Natural Insti
tute, Florida Solar Energy Center
and the Clean Energy Research In
stitute at the University of Miami.
Appleby said the groups are
doing work that will be complemen
tary while still achieving the goals of
the Department of Energy.
“The work that we plan to do is in
the area of production of hydrogen
and the end use of hydrogen,” Ap
pleby said. “Specifically, we are
going to be looking at electrocataly
sis and catalysis of the formation of
hydrogen from water and the design
of devices that can do this from solar
energy.”
Electrocatalysis is the use of elec
tricity to speed up a chemical reac
tion. The reaction in this case being
the decomposition of water into its
components — hydrogen and oxy
gen.
Appleby said the ultimate goal of
the project is to design a device that
either will function as a solar-hydro
gen power cell or will be used to split
water directly into hydroden and ox
ygen. The end result might look like
a sheet of Polaroid film, he said, with
one side of the sheet producing oxy
gen and the other side, hydrogen.
“It’s a bit of a dream right now,”
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Photo by Shelly Schluter
the Denver Broncos against the Washington Redskins. Washington
won, 42-10. See related stories on page 11.
ickens receives business award,
ells crowd entrepreneurship lives
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By Tracy Staton
Senior Staff Writer
Ari. || Entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens
Attributes his success to a simple
T| i ■cliche of hard work and honesty, but
H* ■tl ie formula he outlined to a packed
udder Theater Friday was more
omplicated — it involved avoiding
overnment regulation and reviving
conomic competition.
Pickens was at Texas A&M to re
ceive the first Entrepreneur of the
Year award from the College of
Business Administration. The award
was created to honor Harold L.
Kupfer, Class of ’54.
Pickens told a beyond-capacity
crowd of about 1,000 that the entre
preneurial spirit is alive, despite re
ports of its demise,
nk I 1,1 debated just Monday in Wash
ington with a Harvard economist
. . . who said the dream of being
self-made is now dead in this coun
try,” Pickens said. “I told him, ‘Rob
ert, you’ve never been to Texas.’ ”
Texas entrepreneurs will fill the
gap in the state’s economy created by
the decline of the oil and gas indus
try, he said.
“Oil and gas will be less and less a
factor in the Texas economy,” he
told a press conference before the
presentation. “You’ve got an abun
dance of capable people in the state.
And those people, as a vacuum de
velops, will move into that vacuum. I
think that’s what’s going on in the
state right now. That’s why we’ve
gone down and we will go back up.”
Pickens castigated the executives
who plead for government protec
tion from adversity.
“Listen to me on this one — stay
away from it (government interven
tion),” he said. “Do not let the gov
ernment get involved in your busi
ness. Solutions to business in
America are not in Washington, I
can tell you that.”
See Award, page 7
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Corporate raider makes millions, enemies
during career characterized by controversy
Analysis
Visa
By Tracy Staton
Senior Staff Writer
Although the American dream of
becoming a “self-made millionaire”
seems outmoded to some, T. Boone
[ Pickens’ rise from junior geologist to
| well-known corporate raider follows
the style of Andrew Carnegie or
[John D. Rockefeller.
He started Mesa Petroleum Co. in
1964 with $2,500 in equity; he is now
a limited partner of the company,
which has earned more than $500
million in profits for its shareholders
since it was formed. He was voted
Man of the Year in 1986 by the Oil
Trades Associaton, and Petroleum
Management magazine called him
one of the 10 most influential people
in the petroleum industry.
But the candy-coated capsule of
Pickens’ success has its bitter af
tertaste. In 1986, Business Week
magazine ranked him second in a list
of 10 chief executives who gave the
shareholders the least in return for
the executive’s salary.
Some question the economic value
of his takeover attempts. And his
plea for shareholders’ rights is juxta
posed by his attempts to limit free
dom of the press in Amarillo, his
home town.
Pickens is steeped in controversy.
He elicits strong reactions from
those who come in contact with him
— intense loyalty or intense distrust,
profound dislike e>i overwhelming
admiration.
When Pickens was at Texas A&M
Friday, these polar responses could
be seen on the faces of his audience
in Rudder Theater. And the award
he came to receive, the College of
Business Entrepreneur of the Year,
didn’t seem to fit a person who
inspires such conflicting feelings.
In Sunday’s Houston Post, oilman
See Career, page 7
Appleby said. “But if you could do
that you would solve all of the
world’s energy problems without in
troducing pollution into the envi
ronment. It’s conceivable, but many
years down the line.”
As a more immediate use of solar-
hydrogen power, many researchers
are using power-cell technology
from space and applying it to more
earthly problems. The A&M center
is using part of its money to develop
a fuel cell based on this technology.
“The cell would weigh about 150
pounds and would go in an auto
mobile,” Appleby said. “You would
need an electric motor and other
controls, but the cell would use hy
drogen to produce all the power you
would need to run the automobile.”
To test this theory and demon
strate the possibilities of hydrogen
fuels, the center has received an
electric car from the U.S. Navy and
two electric vans from the Depart
ment of Energy. Appleby said the
researchers hope to have one of the
vans running in about six months.
The centers have begun working
on plans to continue the project be
yond the original one-year stipula
tion. Through the support of Con
gressman Joe Barton, R-Ennis, and
U.S. Speaker of the House Jim
Wright, D-Ft. Worth, all four centers
are looking to make this a long-term
project.
“We anticipate this to be a long
term effort, but we have support in
the right places,” Appleby said. “It’s
going to take total international col
laboration. Hopefully, looking at the
big picture, we will see all sorts of
things happening in the area of hy
drogen fuels in the future.”
FBI director:
Investigation
within law
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The
FBI does not target dissident
groups for investigation of crimi
nal activities, despite such com
plaints from groups opposed to
Reagan administration policies in
Central America, FBI Director
William Sessions said.
Sessions said Saturday that At
torney General Edwin Meese’s
guidelines were followed during
an investigation of a coalition of
organizations called the Commit
tee in Solidarity with the People
of El Salvador or CISPES.
Sessions, a former federal
judge who became FBI director
late last year, said he had not read
the entire report about the inves
tigation, but assumed that the
guidelines were followed and that
the agency did not violate any
one’s civil rights.
Sessions, who said he antic
ipated no FBI policy changes in
those type of investigations, den
ied the group was investigated
just because of its political lean
ings.
“The fact that it may feel or
that there may be a perception
that there is a thrust in the inves
tigation,” he said. “I would deny
that categorically.
“Some people may be very
pleased about the investigation of
certain factions within the United
States. Some may feel that the far
right ought to be investigated or
that some of the groups that are
on the far left ought to be investi
gated. That is not the criteria and
we hope it never is.”
Reagan won’t ask
Meese to resign
in spite of probe
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan will keep close tabs on
the investigation into Attorney Gen
eral Edwin Meese’s role in an Iraqi
oil pipeline project, but seeking
Meese’s resignation now would be
tantamount to “pitching people to
the lions without proof,” a top White
House official said Sunday.
“The president . . . has said he
continues to have full confidence in
his attorney general,” White House
chief of staff Howard H. Baker said.
“I see no reason on earth for the
president to take any action unless
and until it’s made to appear that
Meese has done something wrong.”
Meese has been one of Reagan’s
closest associates since his days as the
governor of California. Meese’s at
torney, James Rocap, has said Meese
had only a limited involvement with
the project and has not broken the
law.
Baker’s comments came amid a
report Sunday in theNew York
Times that White House officials
have been told by the independent
counsel probing the matter that the
attorney general played “an impor
tant and sustained role” in the $ 1 bil
lion Iraqi pipeline project, which
never came to fruition.
A close friend of Meese, E. Robert
Wallach, had a financial interest in
the Iraqi project and he sent the at
torney general a memo citing a plan
to pay off a top Israeli official in re
turn for a guarantee that Israel
would not bomb the pipeline,
sources close to the investigation
have confirmed. The sources spoke
on condition of not being identified.
See related story, Page 3
Controversial chief
of fire department
decides to resign
By Richard Williams
Senior Staff Writer
Embattled Bryan Fire Chief
Claude Jenkins III resigned his posi
tion Friday citing personal reasons.
Jenkins will officially leave the de
partment on Feb. 12, but it is not yet
known by city officials if he will work
until then.
Deputy City Manager Marvin
Norwood said Jenkins may use vaca
tion time for the remaining days.
Deputy City Manager Marvin
Norwood said Jenkins decided to
tender his resignation during a Fri
day morning conference between
the two. The conference was “to talk
about his (Jenkins) future with
Bryan and the development of
events in the department,” Norwood
said.
During the discussion Jenkins
“decided to resign,” Norwood said.
“Looking at the events I am not
surprised,” he added.
Norwood said he delivered the
letter of resignation to City Manager
Ernest Clark at about 4:30 p.m. and
a press conference was held at 5 p.m.
Clark and Jenkins could not be
reached for comment.
Jenkins has been on probation
since Dec. 1 after an investigation
into a petition signed by all 79 Bryan
firefighters.
The firefighters’ petition said they
had “lost total and complete confi
dence in Chief Jenkins’ ability to be
an effective administrator and fire
chief.”
Firefighter Nick Pappas, speaking
for the Byran Firefighters Associa
tion, said the resignation “caught us
all by complete surprise.”
“We felt something was going on
so we called some of the media . . .
they didn’t know of anything so we
blew it off,” Pappas said.
The firefighters are relieved the
situation is over, he said, adding “re
lations between city hall and the fire
fighters are at an all time high.”
After the announcement was
made a message was written on a
chalkboard at Central Fire Station
reading: “Santa Claus lives!
Christmas is 12 Feb. 88.”
A Bryan firefighter, who asked
not to be named, said the message
referred to one of Jenkins’ favorite
sayings.
“When he would cut one of our
programs or privileges he would
say, ‘Santa Claus is dead,’ ” the fire
fighter said.
Norwood said the city will not
name an interim chief but will work
with the existing chain of command
to run the department, Norwood
said.
Applications from Bryan fire
fighters will be considered before
outside applications, he said, but no
deadline has been set for the naming
of a new chief.