RODERICK M. Hills, 77, is convinced the price of oil will come down. Yet, according to Hills, who was once chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission—the body which regulates the stock exchange in the United States—it is time to switch to alternative energy. “Of course, in logical ways,” he says.

Last week, as founder and concurrently the deputy head of the US-ASEAN Business Council, Hills was recently in Jakarta to officiate the o