Most utility company executives are, frankly, dull.

Not Jim Rogers.

The chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Duke Energy speaks bluntly.

He says Congress had better pass climate legislation now or we may have to wait until 2013.

He says the Chinese are kicking our butt in the energy business.

He says there's no clean, affordable and reliable way of generating electricity.

And he says America needs Cathedral thinking" – the thinking that inspired Europeans to build cathedrals over a span of three or four generations.

The people who spent their entire lives working on the foundation never saw the stained glass windows," Rogers said. They did it because they had a vision. They did it because they believed in the future. They did it because they had faith. They did it because, in their minds, they thought it was the right thing to do."

Cathedral thinking is a little longer term than the term of a politician," he added. And it's often not the focus of a CEO who typically lasts only five or six years."

The man from Duke spoke today at the University of North Carolina's Kenan Flagler Business School, which is holding a conference on Global Innovations in Energy. Duke isn't a popular word around UNC these days, particularly after this year's NCAA basketball tourney, but Rogers was received warmly by the Tar Heels.

The veteran CEO didn't make news but he served up some strong views: 

On climate legislation in Washington: We're working very hard to get a bipartisan effort out of the Senate. Virtually every major piece of environmental legislation passed by Congress has been approved overwhelmingly in a bipartisan manner."

He likes what he's heard about the bill being cobbled together by Kerry, Lieberman and Graham. But getting the American people to care about the climate crisis a struggle. You can't see it or smell it. It's about tomorrow and not today."

If we don't get it done this year, we might not get it done until 2013. I think that's the wrong answer. It's very important to have a clear way forward."

On China: They will lead the way on the development of technology." China is growing so fast that it is now No. 1 in coal, No. 1 in wind turbine manufacturing, building a coal plant every other week and building 14 nuclear power plants.

Duke has agreements to work with China Huaneng Group, China's biggest electric utility, on cleaner coal projects, including carbon capture and sequestration and coal gasification, and with the ENN Group in China to develop solar power and other clean-energy technologies

I love the Chinese because they have a can-do spirit. I love working with them. They make things happen."

We're becoming more and more the chattering class. We forgot what made this country great."

On tradeoffs: Job one for me is to provide afforadable, reliable clean electricity, 24/7, 365 days a year." But no way of providing electricity--coal, natural gas, renewable energy like wind and solar, nuclear power, and energy efficiency--comes without drawbacks, with the possible exception of efficiency. "There's no perfect fuel. There's no perfect way to achieve affordable, reliable and clean."

Coal is affordable and reliable but dirty. Natural gas generates CO2, its price it volatile and the environmental impact of shale gas needs further study. Wind and solar are "very expensive and you only get power when the wind blows and when the sun shines."

"Nuclear is actually the only technology today that produces electricity today with zero greenhouse gases. It's as clean as it gets. But it's expensive. And there's an unanswered question if you do a lifecycle analysis about what do you do with the used fuel."

Duke Energy, for what it's worth, is taking an all-of-the-above approach, building two new coal plants (including one that's ready for carbon capture and storage), bulking up its wind business, pushing hard for efficiency and developing a couple of new nuclear plants, among other things.

Whatever you think of Jim Rogers--and as a reporter, I like the guy--the fact that the CEO of one of America's biggest coal-burning utilities (Duke is No. 3) is loudly calling for regulation of greenhouse gases tells you that the world has changed in recent years. What's not clear is whether it's changing fast enough.

Rogers comes across as a man in a hurry.

"We need cathedral thinking," he says, "but we need to do it on China time."