Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/25/2009 4:03:32 PM PDT by kellynla
Mr. Global Warming himself, Al Gore, is the star witness today in the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Democrats’ cap-and-tax global warming bill.
The bill -- recently introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Hollywood) and Edward Markey (D-Kennedywood) -- is labeled the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” which is as Orwellian a name as the “Employee Free Choice Act,” which is of course the way to deny secret ballots to employees in union elections.
This bill should be named the “Al Gore Enrichment Act. ”
House Republicans will have a chance to do better than their Senate colleagues did in January, when no tough questions were asked.
Here are a few questions Gore should answer in the hearing tomorrow:
1. You are a partner in the venture capital firm of Kleiner-Perkins and a co-founder of the United Kingdom-based investment firm of Generation Investment Management, each of which stands to gain financially from greenhouse gas regulation. Please describe any other financial interests that you have in any other businesses that stand to profit from greenhouse gas regulation.
2. In October 2008, the New York Times Magazine featured a cover story on how Kleiner Perkins had invested $1 billion in 40 companies that would profit from new environmental and energy laws and regulations. What will be your share of any profits from these ventures?
3. How much of your own money have you contributed to Kleiner-Perkins, Generation Investment Management and other businesses that stand to profit from greenhouse gas regulation? If you have not contributed significant amounts of your own capital to these businesses, what, then, is your role in them? Are you a lobbyist? Are you the face of their public relations efforts? Is your job to run around scaring politicians and the public into enacting greenhouse gas regulation?
4. Is Kleiner-Perkins’ business plan to have you press for legislation and regulation favorable to its clients in order to make them more attractive and available for sale to the public, at which time Kleiner-Perkins would cash out, leaving the public invested in not-ready-for-prime-time companies that have dubious financial prospects and that are dependent on taxpayer subsidies?
5. Your co-founder with Generation Investment Management is former Goldman Sachs partner David Blood. Goldman Sachs is lobbying for global warming legislation and is a part owner of the Chicago Climate Exchange, where carbon credits from cap-and-trade legislation would be traded. Do you or Generation Investment Management stand to benefit in anyway from these relationships?
6. Generation Investment Management’s web site says the firm provides investment advice to clients. Who are Generation Investment Management’s clients and how do they stand to profit from upcoming environmental and energy legislation and regulation? Will these clients share their profits with you and/or Generation Investment Management?
7. When you left public service in January 2001, your personal net worth was perhaps $2 million. In 2007, your personal net worth was reported to be on the order of $100 million. How much of this fortune is related, directly or indirectly, to your advocacy of legislation to reduce “global warming”?
8. When you testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, why did you not disclose to the Committee and to the public your relationships with Kleiner-Perkins and Generation Investment Management? Generation Investment Management’s web site says, “Integrity and honesty are the bedrock of our business. We demand the highest ethical standards in our work and in our personal lives.” In light of this statement, how to you explain your failure to inform the Senate Committee of your financial conflicts of interest?
9. You travel all over the world in jets and limos, own a houseboat, use 20 times more electricity than the average American, and stand to make a fortune that most millionaires would envy. Yet you tell Americans to downsize their lives, such as by limiting their travel, using less heat and air conditioning, and drying their clothes outside on a clothesline. Describe for us, in detail, your personal “carbon footprint.”
10. If you are wrong about humans causing catastrophic global warming, will you give all the money you “earned” from your alarmism back?
Awesome. I cannot believe people can take this guy seriously.
11. If it is indeed proven that the worlds population growth is a contributing factor to global warming and therefore a need arises to reduce our numbers to save the planet...will you be the first to volunteer to euthanized for population reduction.?
Rep. Marsha Blackburn asked him about these connections. He got all indignant, said to her “You don’t know me”, and then claimed he donated all of his earnings from these companied to charity.
Check out article on Waxman at http://wattsupwiththat.com
Waxman making back room deals.
There is that name again, Goldman Sachs.
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=326113&comments=1
Here’s a post at the Breitbart site:
Unless he has multiple foundations there is something wrong with his claim that he put every dime he’s made advocating environmental causes into a non profit (Alliance for Climate Protection which is the one he founded). They only have about $24 million according to Guidestar.org and don’t give away that much nor are their expenses that high. From what I’ve read he’s made a whole lot more than that something in the neighborhood of $100 million but the reports I have seen could be wrong and maybe the $24 million+ what’s already been spent is everything he’s earned.
Is this something we can research, FReepers? Where are our research experts?
Waxman bribes Mr. Gene Green? - private deal “allowances” if Dems will vote for cap and trade bill
25 04 2009
It seems our future is being bargained away for a few pieces of silver as this passage from the article indicates. Those of you that have an interest in this, now is the time to write and call your U.S. representative. - Anthony
While Shimkus acknowledged that closed-door negotiating was “just a way of doing business” in Congress, he said offering emission allowances for votes may take the process beyond ethical boundaries.
From the Washington Examiner: To get votes, Waxman offers cap-and-trade breaks
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
04/23/09
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has led efforts to entice votes for the Democratic energy bill by giving some oil refineries favorite treatment in the cap and trade system.
In exchange for votes to pass a controversial global warming package, Democratic leaders are offering some lawmakers generous emission “allowances” to protect their districts from the economic pain of pollution restrictions.
Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, represents a district with several oil refineries, a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. He also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which must approve the global warming plan backed by President Barack Obama.
Green says Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who heads the panel, is trying to entice him into voting for the bill by giving some refineries favorable treatment in the administration’s “cap and trade” system, which is expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years. Under the plan, companies would pay for the right to emit carbon dioxide, but Green and other lawmakers are angling to get a free pass for refineries in their districts.
“We’ve been talking,” Green said, referring to a meeting he had with Waxman on Tuesday night. “To put together a bill that passes, they have to get our votes, and I’m not going to vote for a bill without refinery allowances.”
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the energy panel, said Waxman and others are also dangling allowances for steel and coal-fired power plants to give political cover to Democrats whose districts rely on these companies.
Democrats so far have been unable to get enough support from their own members to pass the bill out of a small global warming subcommittee because most Republicans and many Democrats say the plan will raise energy rates, destroy jobs and increase prices on manufactured goods.
Republicans said Waxman and subcommittee chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., are calling Democrats into their offices and offering allowances, also called credits, in exchange for votes.
Waxman told The Examiner he was not trading votes for allowances.
“That is what the Republicans are saying, but that is not accurate,” he said. The bill left out specifics on allowances “in order to be able to have discussions on how best to ease the transition for various geographical regions and ratepayers.”
“I will politely disagree,” said energy committee member John Shimkus, R-Ill., who insisted Waxman “is calling members into his office to try to get their vote, and that will be based on the credits they are offering.”
While Shimkus acknowledged that closed-door negotiating was “just a way of doing business” in Congress, he said offering emission allowances for votes may take the process beyond ethical boundaries.
“We are talking real dollars here, real shareholder wealth,” Shimkus said, “and we are not being given the time to analyze these credits.”
Environmentalists and free-market advocates say the credits will favor struggling, out-of-date operations.
“We are going to have electricity that is dirtier because the allowances are going to be misallocated,” said Robert Michaels, an economics professor at California State University and senior fellow for the Institute for Energy Research.
Humor me- when was the last time a liberal was right about anything?
Ummmmm No, But I sure can find some deadbodies to recycle....
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