The inconvenient truth of Al Gore's riches

We've heard the Obama Administration time and again speak against those who make millions, especially against those who do so by reaping the benefits of government policy lobbied for.

I wonder why they're ignoring Al Gore?

Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr. Gore is a partner.

The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Mr. Gore’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called smart meters in homes and businesses.

Mr. Gore and his partners decided to back the company, and in gratitude Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers.

The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts. Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years.

Silver Spring Networks is a foot soldier in the global green energy revolution Mr. Gore hopes to lead. 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. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore 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 skeptics, 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.

Where's Jim Wallis on this?  Where are the other Religious Leftists who are usually so quick to decry those whose profits are sourced in government lobbying? 

Where are they?  Anyone?

Comments

[yogchick]

Give me a break. Gore is only putting his money where his mouth is. What do you expect him to do -- invest in the coal mining industry? He's no longer an elected official. This shouldn't even be an issue.

[Mommynator]

Gore was on that embarassment of a program, The View today. I was sitting in a doctor's office with my mother and so was trapped into listening to this moron spout lie after lie after lie.

He can make all the money he wants from scaring people if people are stupid enough to buy what he's selling.

But he should try to be honest. Like that will ever happen.

[yogchick]

What do you expect Gore to do -- invest in coal? He's putting his money where his mouth is and yes, he's making a lot of money out of it. As he is no longer an elected official, he doesn't have conflict of interest issues to deal with (or shouldn't). This is not Halliburton and Al Gore is not Dick Cheney. Know the difference. And understand that this is not some vast, enviro-fascist conspiracy propounded by greedy weathermen, wildlife caretakers, and marine biologists.

[yogchick]

Al Gore did not spend the last 8 years educating the world about global warming as some sort of convoluted, unnecessarily arduous strategy to make more money through Kleiner Perkins – that would be ludicrous. And understand that Global Warming is not a part of some vast, enviro-fascist conspiracy propounded by an international cabal of greedy meteorologists, marine biologists, and wildlife refuge caretakers.