Beware of prophets making Profits

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**Frazzled**

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/6491195/Al-Gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire.html

Al Gore could become world's first carbon billionaire
Al Gore, the former US vice president, could become the world's first carbon billionaire after investing heavily in green energy companies.

Published: 7:00AM GMT 03 Nov 2009

Last year Al Gore's venture capital firm loaned a small California firm $75m to develop energy-saving technology Photo: AP
Last year Mr Gore's venture capital firm loaned a small California firm $75m to develop energy-saving technology.

The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient.

The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants, the New York Times reports. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts.

The move means that venture capital company Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years.

Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy as Mr Gore. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.

Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming sceptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world's first "carbon billionaire," profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.

Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, has claimed that Mr Gore stood to benefit personally from the energy and climate policies he was urging Congress to adopt.

Mr Gore had said that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.

"Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?" Mr. Gore said. "I am proud of it. I am proud of it."

**Altered_Soul**

While keeping a watchful eye on how our own progresss marks the environment around us is imperative, most politicians trying to make a difference are often doing it for personal interest rather than global benefit. Hell, anything marketed as saving the environment is the same.

**Kilkrazy**

What if a right wing politician invested in an oil company. Would that be a conflict of interest?

As the Bible says, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

**Frazzled**

Kilkrazy wrote:What if a right wing politician invested in an oil company. Would that be a conflict of interest?

As the Bible says, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

You mean like Dick Cheney? Yep no one ever had issues about him and Halliburton...

**Altered_Soul**

Frazzled wrote:
You mean like Dick Cheney? Yep no one ever had issues about him and Halliburton...

Oh wow I just lost all my philosophical notions and just started laughing hysterically.

**Frazzled**

Frazzled wrote:

You mean like Dick Cheney? Yep no one ever had issues about him and Halliburton...

**frgsinwntr**

Cheney scares me

**Ahtman**

frgsinwntr wrote:Cheney scares me

**Frazzled**

Excelsior!

**Albatross**

Ah, well..

That's Capitalism!

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

**sebster**

I don't get the issue.

I mean, using private funds to invest and expand green technology, and being so good at it that you make a substantial private profit seems to me to be the ideal way of going about the move to green technology. In the cited case Gore's fund gave a loan, so they weren't even an equity interest in the firm.

Now, if you could establish that Al Gore was lobbying directly for grants to be given to firms he or his fund had invested in, or that no-bid contracts were being handed out to firms he had invested in, then you'd have something.

**Cryonicleech**

Frazzled wrote:Excelsior!

But...I'm being super cereal...

**warpcrafter**

Frazzled wrote:

You're my hero, Frazz.

**Frazzled**

warpcrafter wrote:
Frazzled wrote:

You're my hero, Frazz.

She Who Must Be Obeyed loves your glass half broken moniker Warpcrafter. She likes to repeat it while driving the mom mobile and chuckle. Thats my Baby!