Everyone thought the Obama Stimulus was a
failure. That is unless you are Al Gore in which case it was super successful.
Al went from being a little rich to being SUPER rich thanks to Obamas free tax
payer money. What a great deal.
Before a rapt
audience, Al Gore flashed slides on a giant
screen bearing the logos of 11 clean energy companies he predicted could help
slow climate change.
“We can’t wait. . . . We have a planetary emergency,” the former
vice president told industry leaders and scientists at the 2008 conference.
“Here are just a few of the investments that I personally think make
sense.”
Today, several of
those clean tech firms are thriving, including a solar energy start-up and a
Spanish utility company that has
dotted rural America with hundreds of wind
turbines.
Al Gore is thriving,
too.
The man who was
within sight of the presidency 12 years ago has transformed himself, becoming
perhaps the world’s most renowned crusader on climate change and a highly
successful green-tech investor.
Just before leaving
public office in 2001, Gore reported assets of less than $2 million; today, his
wealth is estimated at $100
million.
He
benefited from a powerful resume and a constellation of friends in the
investment world and in Washington. And four years ago, his portfolio
aligned smoothly with the agenda of an incoming administration and its plan to
spend billions in stimulus funds on alternative energy.
Fourteen
green-tech firms in which Gore invested received or directly benefited from more than $2.5 billion in
loans, grants and tax breaks, part of President Obama’s historic push to seed a
U.S. renewable-energy industry with public money.
Gore
declined to be interviewed I
wonder why?
Eight
years after losing the presidential race, with Bush in the final stretch of his
administration, Gore was working hard to build support in Washington for his cause.
By then a rising green investor, he was keenly focused on shaping policy should
a Democrat win in 2008.
Before
the election, Gore launched a public campaign known as “Repower America,” aimed
at encouraging the public and the next administration to support
government investments in clean energy.
His Alliance for
Climate Protection was running numerous ads, and he delivered speeches laying
out his goal that, within 10 years, 100 percent of the nation’s electricity
should come from clean energy.
“The
future of human civilization is at stake,” Gore
said in a 2008 speech,
stressing that such projects would create jobs. So
where are the jobs? Al Gore said NAFTA was going to create jobs too. He lied
about that as well. He is really good at lying.
Gore’s
venture partner, Doerr, had been raising money for Democrats to take back the
White House, holding big-check receptions with Silicon
Valley investors. He and fellow Kleiner partners and spouses donated
more than $800,000 to Democrats,
much of it for Obama and state efforts to get out the vote.
five
of Gore’s principals, including co-founder David Blood, wrote $130,000 in checks
to aid Obama’s bid, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.
As Obama was
preparing to take office, it was clear his public agenda supporting clean energy
aligned with Gore’s personal agenda. Obama held a highly publicized meeting with
Gore at
transition headquarters in Chicago to talk about energy policy. Later,
Obama closely echoed several of Gore’s talking points and his plan for public
investment in clean energy. Obama even adopted Gore’s campaign catchphrase for the
effort, “Repower America.”
“This
is a matter of urgency and national security,” Obama said. “We
have the opportunity now to create
jobs all across this country in all 50 states to repower
America, to redesign how we use energy and . . . make us competitive for decades to come —
even as we save the planet.” How did
all that work out?
Gore’s orbit
extended deeply into the administration, with several former aides winning
senior clean-energy posts. Among them were Carol Browner, a former Gore
political operative who became the president’s climate change czar, and Ron
Klain, Gore’s former chief of staff who went to work for Vice President Biden
overseeing the stimulus.
Those connections
were underscored in October 2009, when Jonathan Silver, under consideration to
head the $38 billion clean-energy loan program, hosted a party to help Gore
raise money for the Alliance for Climate
Protection.
Silver invited the
Department of Energy’s chief financial officer, days before the official was
scheduled to meet Silver to discuss the job.
Gore’s
investments coincided with the government’s largest investment in clean tech. A
full 10 percent, estimated at $80 billion to $90 billion, of the 2009 stimulus
package was devoted to clean energy.
Of
the 11 companies he mentioned in his 2008 slide show, nine received or directly
benefited from stimulus or clean energy funding.
