John Hofmeister is on a crusade. He speaks armed with knowledge from having joined Shell Oil Co. in 1997, and serving as its president from 2005 to 2008.

And, he speaks with the passion and frankness that comes from being unfettered from the constraints of the corporate world. Today, he is founder and chief spokesman for the nonprofit Citizens for Affordable Energy, an educational group that promotes sound energy security solutions for the nation.

But that idea germinated during his last two years as president of Shell, when Hofmeister launched an unprecedented outreach program to discuss critical global energy challenges. This included an 18-month, 50-city tour during which he led 250 Shell leaders and met with more than 15,000 business, community and civic leaders, policymakers, and academics to discuss what must be done to ensure affordable, available energy for the future.

He even became the first high-ranking Shell executive ever to visit one particular Shell service station, which took the customers and owner by surprise, he says.

Hofmeister is a straight talker on TV and other media. He is also the author of Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk from an Energy Insider. “I go up the nose of the industry in my book,” he says.

The public is not immune either. He says if people don’t pay attention to energy matters and force their legislative leaders to do the right thing, they could be facing an energy abyss and up to $150 per barrel oil by the end of 2012.

A man who has participated in the inner workings of multiple industries for more than 35 years, Hofmeister also was an executive at energy-consuming companies such as General Electric, Nortel and AlliedSignal (now Honeywell International).

Today he is chairman of the National Urban League and on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Advisory Committee. He serves as non-executive director of several companies, including Lufkin Industries Inc. and Camac Energy Inc., and is a senior advisor to two energy start-ups: Liberty Power of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and NewEarth Technologies of Seattle.

He is also on the boards of the Foreign Policy Association, the Gas Technology Institute and the Center for Houston’s Future.

Hofmeister earned a master’s degree in political science from Kansas State University, and in May 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Houston.

We talked with him between his ongoing media appearances on venues such as The Today Show, Meet the Press, Larry King Live and other shows, where he advocates for energy issues and provides commentary to media including CNBC, Fox Business Today and Bloomberg, among others.

Investor: John, what’s your take on the BP oil-spill aftermath?

Hofmeister: What BP did was seriously offensive to the rest of the industry. It looks like some individuals made poor decisions. What led to it? We really have to understand it. I don’t think it’s an endemic practice of the whole industry. This was an anomaly, all things considered.

The shallow-water Gulf never had a drilling moratorium, yet exactly four well permits have been granted in three months, versus an average of 15 per month. That’s a de facto moratorium. But, there will be no sympathy for this industry when gasoline prices go up.

The Obama administration could be toasting themselves without knowing it. I suspect this could be the end of the Obama administration. The moratorium will be Obama’s Katrina. The forces he has unleashed will be forces he cannot control. We can surmise that what comes after the moratorium will be as bad as or worse than the moratorium.

We saw some extraordinary public policy play out after BP…it demonstrates to me the complete misguided, misunderstood and misdirected determination of this administration as to what energy policy should be. The punitive legislation passed by the House will result in a serious redirection of investment efforts away from the Gulf. Members of the Senate really do not know what to do. To broad-brush the entire industry is wrong.

We could see $125 to $130 oil by the end of 2011, and it could creep up even more, to $150 by 2012. That happens to be a presidential election year.

Investor: You have a unique perspective.

Hofmeister: Before 2005, I lived in Asia and in Europe and what I witnessed was the incredible economic expansion in Asia, and in Europe, I saw the effects of “Old Europe” hardly being able to sustain itself in energy. I experienced high prices there.…Then I come back to the U.S. and see incredible fragmentation in our industry and every part of the industry competing against itself. Federal policy is nonexistent and U.S. citizens have no clue…I see partisan paralysis.

I asked myself, what are these people doing to themselves? It gave me a cause!

Investor: So you formed Citizens for Affordable Energy.

Hofmeister: Shell has a policy, 60 and out, so after I retired, I thought there were more things to be done. Citizens is an educational, not-for-profit group. We are not a lobby. Our funding is from private citizens; we take no contributions from energy producers. Our goal is affordable energy for all. That doesn’t necessarily mean cheap.

Investor: You’ve said the American public needs to do an energy intervention. What should it do?

Hofmeister: We want to help citizens understand that they can act in four areas. I call them the Four Mores: More energy from all sources. More efficiency through technology. More environmental protection. More energy infrastructure to being energy from where it is produced to where it is consumed. We are reaching hundreds of people every day, most of it through personal contact.

Investor: You’ve spoken to so many Americans. What is their biggest misconception about energy?

Hofmeister: The biggest misconception is that we are running out of energy. The No. 1 issue we face is the perceptions of the public. Recent attempts, in classic political fashion, to suggest renewables will replace oil, gas, nuclear, coal...again it’s a gross misrepresentation, given the scale and size of energy requirements in this country.

The industry has failed to do a good job of communicating…I call them out for their fundamental failure to explain this to the public. We know the risks (in finding and producing energy) but our mission is to mitigate risk. The industry is sitting on its hands, hiding behind a rock. We’re never going to run out of energy. Nuclear is never going to run out. The industry could be helpful if they would just share what they know.

Investor: Yet, you do promote adding renewables to the mix.

Hofmeister: Yes, they can play a role. But let’s get back to reality. What is this country going to do? It’s going to consume liquid fuel. We have 250 million cars. Forty-nine percent of our electricity comes from coal. We’d better have more coal, more oil, more gas…or the lights go out.

What we’ve seen out of this Congress in the last two years is zero energy policy. If the House passes it, the Senate does not. This whole session is a washout. Meanwhile, we use 20 million barrels of oil a day. We use a railcar loaded with coal every three seconds. We’d better keep supplying that market. Americans will not stand for energy shortages.

Investor: What about longer term? Will we ever be energy independent?

Hofmeister: Drill, baby, drill is not going to happen! In the next decade, if we increase drilling enough to produce 7 million barrels a day, and add 2 million a day in biofuels, and the equivalent of another 2 million from other fuels…that’s still less than the 20 million a day we use now.

I think by 2060, we will be energy independent, and we will have gotten rid of the internal combustion engine, and have public transportation like they do in Europe or Japan.

I had lunch with Boone Pickens the other day. We discussed (natural gas for vehicles). Fine. I see nothing wrong with that. The public subsidy would kick it off. But I think ultimately, natural gas is going to be used to generate electricity.

Investor: You criticize the industry, but it has formed new trade associations to promote gas and educate the public.

Hofmeister: I don’t think purchased media aimed at mass audiences works. It dilutes the effect. I think it’s money badly spent. What matters is getting people talking to people, to engage Congress members back home where the industry is operating and would like to operate.

This is a hearts-and-mind thing. You respect people when you talk to them in person. They don’t respect an actor on a TV screen or in an ad. We need feet on the street.

We are at a very critical stage as a country and as an industry. This is a very serious decision time.…We are headed for an energy abyss. We will simply not have enough energy within the decade…

Investor: Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

Hofmeister: Americans, when they have the facts, are pragmatic and smart. But I fear we may have to fall into the energy abyss before we act.