Better Place targets terrorism with campaign for oil independence

On Wednesday, February 9, Michael Granoff (A91) delivered this spring’s Lyon & Bendheim Alumni Lecture as the Head of Oil Independence Policies for Better Place —an Israel based sustainable transportation company. Better Place aims to eliminate oil dependency worldwide by providing networks — such as battery switch stations and charge spots — to support electric vehicles.

Israel will have the first nationwide deployment to serve electric cars. “The mission is to end oil,” Granoff said. “The only way to do that is to have a market driven scalable alternative to gasoline vehicles.” Better Place believes their products, electric cars with a network and an operator, are superior to gasoline cars. They are testing their theory in Israel, Denmark, Australia and on several project sights in the United States.

While some news providers such as Planet Ark and The Guardian hail Better Place as a key environmental pioneer, Granoff said the driving force behind his passion is energy security. “Nine-eleven was the key moment for me, personally,” Granoff said. “I lost people who I knew.”

The 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States coincided with a terror war against Israel. Granoff was in Israel during much of the strife, which influenced his industrial ambitions. “At a certain point you realize that when you go fill up your car with gasoline, [you are] contributing to the problems out of which terrorism arises,” Granoff said. “That’s where it all began for me.”

Granoff went on to help put together an advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. to secure America’s future energy by reducing our dependence on oil. According to Granoff, “electrification is the only solution to put transportation on an alternative path.” He said he was lucky to connect with Shai Agassi when he founded Better Place in 2007. Together, they have begun the foundations of a network to electrify transportation.

During the lecture, one audience member posed the question, “How are you generating the electricity as most of it is coal and gas?” Granoff stated that in the worst-case scenario, an electric car owner plugs in their vehicle in West Virginia, which runs entirely on coal electricity. “Your ground level emissions are non-existent,” Granoff said. “There’s only one smoke stack at the coal plant, and actual emissions are 50 percent less than what they would be with millions of petroleum powered cars on the road.”
One of the largest hurdles Granoff has had to face in his campaign to reduce oil dependency is the political polarization in the United States. “Israel is going to be off of oil in 10 years,” Granoff said. “There’s no reason, no technical reason, that the U.S. should not be doing the same thing. And yet, no one thinks its possible.”

While high government officials are sympathetic to Better Place’s aims, Granoff said they feel hamstrung by unwavering political division in this country. “If there is an issue that is both as pressing for the country as the energy security issue and, which relates directly to the impact, I think it is this political polarization,” Granoff said. “I am all for any effort to reduce the coarseness of the political culture in the United States. It is becoming a huge threat to our future.”

Granoff can trace his path to Better Place from the guidance he received when he was an undergraduate at Tufts. “Sol Gittleman was the provost of the University when I was a student,” Granoff said. “His advice to freshman or pre-freshman was to study what interested you and not to imagine that whatever you studied was going to become your career.” With that in mind, Granoff majored in religion and Jewish studies before continuing his education in Israel.

For students focusing their future on sustainability, Granoff said that energy will open a lot of industrial opportunities. “One of the most profound themes in the next generation in business is creating new systems that are less resource intensive,” Granoff said. “I think the opportunities are going to be enormous.”

According to Granoff, motivation is the key component to any successful endeavor. “It is important, I think, to figure out what your passion is,” Granoff said. “But also think about the needs of the next generation. Energy security is a critical need that has motivated me. There are a lot of other critical needs.”

Lenora Smith A’13