Surely, Alan Mulally as a young man growing up in Lawrence never imagined that he would be handed the keys to this car.

Congratulations are in order to Mulally, the Lawrence High and Kansas University graduate who recently was named the new chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co.

Mulally has been given the task of driving one of America’s more storied corporations to new heights. If he’s successful, it certainly will be a nice addition to the resume of both KU and the community.

But if he’s able to achieve his goals, it won’t be just Jayhawks and Chesty Lions taking notice. It is not an overstatement to say that Mulally has a chance to be one of the more important men of his generation. The KU engineering graduate is now in a position to truly change the automobile industry.

If Mulally can become the man who finally finds the way to break the automobile industry’s dependence on petroleum, he will have created a fundamental change that would touch every facet of the American economy. Much like his company’s founder did 103 years ago, he would truly change the world.

The time has certainly come for America to end its great foreign addiction. Foreign oil is slowly but surely leaving a stain on our economic and political powers that won’t easily wash away. What’s frustrating is that the only reason oil has become this country’s most sought after commodity is because it fuels – literally – the engines of our economy. But any engineer the quality of Mulally can tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. Alternative fuels and means of generating energy already exist and more certainly can be found if the auto industry makes it a true priority.

It will take a leader who is not only committed to the idea but one who can sell the American public on it. Only time will tell if Alan Mulally is the right man.

As a longtime, highly successful executive with the Boeing Co., there were many signals he might be the man for the task. After he was announced as Ford’s new CEO, one analyst who followed Mulally at Boeing had this to say about him:

“When executives said they’d always done things one way, he told them that didn’t matter: Do it the best way,” said analyst Jim Hall. “He knows how to get people to quit doing things just because that’s how they’ve always done them. Ford can use that.”

Hordes of Americans who travel to the gasoline pumps every week – or two or three times per week – simply because that’s what we’ve always done, can use it too.

Here’s hoping the man from Lawrence will take the keys to his new car and drive it down new paths.