| Gore Financially Invested in Climate Cause By Fred Lucas CNSNews.com Staff Writer May 14, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Weeks before announcing a $300-million, three-year advertising campaign to raise awareness about global warming, Al Gore was conducting a slide show for a group of investors in Monterey, Calif., touting companies such as Bloom Energy, Amryis , Mascoma and other firms that are not household names -- yet. These bio-fuel and green technology firms could be poised to take off, Gore told his audience. "Here are just a few of the investments I personally think make sense," he said during the March 1 presentation. "I have a stake in these so I'll have a disclaimer there." (See Video) Gore's admitted stake in those companies comes from his partnership in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Gore joined the firm last November, forging a partnership between KPCB and the London-based Generation Investment Management, a firm Gore chairs, and which steers investments in green and "sustainable" companies. This month, KPCB announced it has invested $500 million into start-up "green growth" companies, and another $700 million into more established greentech, information technology and life science ventures. The seed money is intended to "grow" the companies so they can be publicly traded. Both funds are closed to further investment. Last week, Generation Investment Management reportedly closed a $683-million "Climate Solutions Fund" to further investment. The firms, with similar goals, differ in that GIM focuses mostly on public equities, while KPCB focuses on startup or expanding companies that haven't gone public yet. But without government action on climate change, some business analysts say green companies backed by KPCB are either unlikely to be profitable or that their growth will be slow. To Gore's critics, his financial stake in businesses that could profit from government policies designed to fight global warming demonstrates a motivation other than a selfless desire to protect the planet. Gore has lobbied Congress and state governments to enact bolder environmental regulations. Gore's defenders counter that he and his partners are simply looking at companies that will have long-term sustainability during the "climate crisis." "There are a bunch of folks that stand to make real money, who have invested a lot in companies that are not worth real money until the agenda that this ad campaign is advocating is achieved," Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-enterprise think tank, said in an interview. Companies in the KPCB portfolio, as start-up companies, might be in greater need of a helping hand from government policy changes, but the larger, more established firms in the GIM portfolio also could benefit if the government manipulates the current market by mandating alternative fuels or imposing a cap and trade system. As a private citizen, Gore is not required to publicly disclose how much of his personal fortune is invested in the venture capital firm. KPCB spokeswoman Brianna Woon declined to say how much Gore had invested in the firms, and she said the firms couldn't comment at this time on whether the greentech companies can succeed without government action. [Read More] |
Books Energy Keepers Energy Killers by Roy InnisThis powerful book documents the destruction planned in every community in the United States by the assault of the Energy Killers invading the world. Al Gore Wants This Book Banned! Fox News' Sean Hannity says if you read it and act on its message, "You will change the world." Change the world - Buy this Book LatestAds combat Senate climate billA conservative, free-market advocacy group, The Club for Growth, is airing radio and television ads to counter a Senate bill on climate change. The purpose of the ads is to explain to the public the extent to which the legislation could damage the economy, should it pass. "The number of jobs that will be lost, the rise in price in gasoline and electricity, the loss in GDP -- it's all astronomical. And we think it's important for people to know what's going on ..." The legislation is a "massive redistribution of wealth," and the organization is asking concerned citizens to call their senators and urge them to oppose the measure. Press SMARTGREENUSA LAUNCHES GLOBAL WARMING ATTACKEXPOSING ECO-HYSTERIA AND STOPPING GREEN GENOCIDE WASHINGtTON, DC - SmartGreenUSA is exposing ‘Eco Hysteria;’ the Eco Hysteria ignited by climatologists, politicians and government commissions that ignore good science and create laws that kill people and the economy.   Al Gore Wants This Book Banned!Energy Keepers, Energy Killers By - Roy Innis This powerful book documents the destruction planned in every community in the United States by the assault of the Energy Killers invading the world. Fox News' Sean Hannity says if you read it and act on its message, "You will change the world." Change the world - Buy this Book
gas tax  SmartGreenUSA is committed to continuing environmental progress and Smart-Green initiatives. We are dedicated to pursuing the best science available, to evaluate the costs and economic impact associated with the ideas, products and policies proposed as “green” and to be your voice to remind the government that they are elected to serve the people, not to rule over us. We fought a battle to ensure the right to be governed over 200 year ago. With your help we will continue to fight for your rights. DONATE to SmartGreenUSA Thank you for your generous support to help SmartGreenUSA protect America. "A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
Benjamin Franklin "The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." Samuel Adams Exposing the truth - Making a difference in this world while I am here. ~ Patrick Hughes ~ SmartGreenUSA |
