IN 2005, JOSH BECKER, JD/MBA ’98, WAS VACATIONING IN ITALY WHEN HE RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM HIS FRIEND AND FELLOW ENTREPRENEUR JACK HIDARY. “He told me there was an energy bill in Congress and the time was right to do something,” recalls Becker, co-founder and general partner of New Cycle Capital, a socially conscious venture fund.

Clean energy supporters had something in mind: a competition—funded by Congress—to reward groundbreaking efforts to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Called the Freedom Prize, the award would focus not on research and development but rather on existing technologies and strategies being used to promote energy independence.

“We wanted to make an immediate impact on the environment, and we knew from experience that prizes can be an effective tool for supporting public policy,” says Becker, who with Hidary helped develop the X PRIZE competition to build an uber-efficient car that can exceed the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

Once back in the States, Becker traveled with Hidary to Washington, D.C., where Congress was debating the Energy Policy Act of 2005. They met with the staff of New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman ’68, then the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and one of the bill’s top negotiators. And, a Stanford GSB connection netted them a sit-down with the staff of Texas Congressman Joe Barton, who chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee. What happened next was straight out of “Lobbying 101.”

“We’d show up at the joint committee hearing and buttonhole members during the break,” explains Becker. “We created a whirlwind around the idea.”

Their efforts paid off. The competition was written into the bill, and this June the Freedom Prize Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy kicked off the program, which will award prizes ranging from $500,000 to $1 million in the coming year. (Applications are available this fall at www.freedomprize.org.)

Becker has a knack for applying entrepreneurial ideas to public policy issues. In 2005 he teamed up with Hidary to co-found SmartTransportation.org, which led to New York City’s switch to hybrid taxis. (Today the city has more than 920 hybrid taxis; the entire fleet will be hybrid by 2012.) Becker is also the founder and chair of Full Circle Fund, an alliance of business leaders focused on tackling public problems through philanthropy and policy advocacy. As for the Freedom Prize, Becker is excited to see what innovations people come up with in the program’s five categories: industry, schools, government, military, and community. “At the end of the day our goal is to get major institutions in society to decrease their oil use—and to improve the environment,” he says.