Ted Turner talks clean energy, CNN and picking up trash

Q: You’ve advocated developing a smart grid for the transmission of natural energy. You really think solar and wind power can solve our energy crisis and dependence on foreign oil?

A: Wind, solar, geothermal. Yes, I think they can. In fact, I know they can, if we use enough of it. Both wind and solar are intermittent somewhat, because on a cloudy day, they don't put out at peak velocity. And when there's no wind, the wind machines don't run. But we can use natural gas as the base-load. Or nuclear. Or geothermal, if it will work economically.

Q: But we need a new energy grid.

A: We've got a hundred-year-old grid. It's totally obsolete. It was geared for coal. We're going to create lots of new jobs and we're going to get cleaner air. We're going to get energy independence, finally, where we're not bankrupting ourselves buying all this oil from the Middle East. Boone Pickens, he and I are buddies. He's a right-wing Republican and I'm more of a moderate, but we agree on this whole energy thing and we should use natural gas as a transition fuel; we have lots of it.

Q: You’re convinced our cars will change along with the energy?

A: Absolutely. We will be converting over from oil-powered automobiles to electricity. So we'll live in a clean world, energy independent, financially stable, prosperous, with lots of jobs. There's nothing except the coal industry and the oil industry standing in the way. They're big, because they hold the hill and they've got all this money. But deep down in their hearts, they all know it's wrong. They know that this other policy is the right way to go.

Q: With 2 million acres, you are the largest landowner in America. Are you involving your private land in this effort?

A: We're making our land available for wind and solar wherever it's appropriate. Do I want to see windmills on top of every hill? Not really. But I sure would rather see that than the smokestack of a coal-burning plant that's going to pour mercury all over our kids.

Q: Moving away from fossil fuel seems timely now, in light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

A: Doesn't it? And right before the Gulf oil spill, the 29 coal miners that were killed in West Virginia, and then two days later, 29 more were killed in China or Russia. Coal mining is inherently very dangerous. And on top of that, we're knocking the tops off the mountains in West Virginia.

Q: You started the Nuclear Threat Initiative to reduce the world’s stockpile of weapons.

A: The whole [nuclear] war-weapons-of-mass-destruction thing is an epoch we should get behind us. We have made some substantial progress. We are not doomed. I mean, we are doomed if we don't do the right things, but I'm not willing to accept that.

Q: Cable news has become increasingly factionalized with CNN, Fox and MSNBC. When you started CNN, did you envision this huge cable world with all these different angles and opinions out there?

A: Yes. [When CNN was starting out] I said, where will the greatest threat to CNN come from? And it hit me right away that it would come from a right-wing network, because CNN was going to be, under my leadership, moderate and truthful and unbiased and cover both sides of the issues. When I made a decision to go ahead with it, we had already started Headline News. So I had two news networks and I said, if somebody announces they're going to start a right-wing network, I could always turn Headline News into a right wing network, and at least make it very difficult for them. But when the time came that Rupert [Murdoch] had decided to go ahead with Fox News, we were doing so well, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't run a Rush Limbaugh network. Just couldn't do it. So I just let him have it.

Q: Are you surprised at how well Fox has done?

A: No, because you know there is a big right wing in the United States and the other three networks weren't going to cover it from that standpoint. Fox News got all the hard right viewers because there was no place else for them to go. For those looking for a moderate viewpoint, you've ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN and Bloomberg.

Q: You predicted the demise of newspapers a long time ago and they’ve had a rough time lately.

A: I know, I predicted it. Just because I predicted it doesn't mean I'm happy about it. I hate to see newspapers go. But I'm afraid they're gone. It's an obsolete way of … it's like a phone booth. You don't have any investment in phone booths do you?

Q: Do you think CNN is here to stay in Atlanta?

A: I've been gone from the company for close to 10 years now. I don't know why they'd want to move it, but they've already moved a lot. A lot of the programs are generated in New York or Washington or in other places.

Q: You still have a presence in Atlanta.

A: Where are we right now?

Q: I wanted to ask how you view downtown’s development since the Olympics.

A: I think it's been very encouraging.

Q: You like to get out and walk around Atlanta when you’re in town?

A: I walk, that's right. I walk over there [to CNN Center] all the time. That's where I get my hair cut; my barbershop is over there.

Q: I’ve heard that when you’re out you also stop to pick up trash.

A: Well, if we had more people picking up trash than putting it down we'd live in a clean world, wouldn't we?

Q: When people see you on the street picking up trash, don’t they stop and say, “What’s Ted Turner doing picking up trash?”

A: Well, what's wrong with that? I think it's good. I'm doing the right thing. If everybody picked up trash we wouldn't have any trash to pick up.