...Check out how Nathan Loftice is waging a war on waste at FedEx Office. Or what Mike Vickers and Eric Pagano are doing to increase the use of recycled materials at FedEx Ground. And learn how Jeremy Goldstritch is reducing fuel usage through Eco-Drive programs in Asia.

Their actions speak as loudly as the numbers that mark our progress. Such team members are thinking globally and acting locally to make sure their cities, communities and neighborhoods are increasingly good places to live and work.

It is tempting to say that the headlines about rising fuel prices, Libya and other events in the Middle East will be a wake-up call to the dangers of oil dependence. But such calls have been repeated for almost 40 years, and yet the vulnerability – both in the US and across the globe – remains.

Our mobile economy remains defenseless against oil-price shocks and supply interruptions. In the US, transport accounts for 70 per cent of petroleum consumed. 97 per cent of transport fuel in the US is derived from oil, and there are no plausible substitutes. When prices go up, there are only two choices: drive less or pay more. If supplies are disrupted for any reason, the choices are even worse. This must change.

“It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so.” - Will Rogers

This nation’s energy policy for the past forty years is not that hard to judge - it’s disjointed, shortsighted and largely ineffective. We know it, we say it, but we continue to ignore it. It’s the “what we know that ain’t so.”

But, with turmoil in the world, and fuel prices on the rise - again, it’s well past time to continue ignoring it. We can’t afford to do so, either in our pocketbooks or in our security. It’s an energy policy of the past, not that of a once-again growing world economy that has become increasingly interconnected. We cannot let yesterday’s approach hamper tomorrow’s reality. As Will Rogers also said, “Never let yesterday use up too much of today.”