Former Vice-President Al Gore could become the first carbon billionaire based on investments he’s made through his venture capital firm. Gore’s firm loaned Silver Spring Networks $75 million for the development of energy saving technology. Now thanks to billions in government grants, Gore is positioned to become a very wealthy man.
President Obama last week, announced $3.4 billion in grants would be awarded to companies working on clean energy technology, smart grid grants as they’re called; of those billions, Silver Spring Networks will receive $560 million. This of course means that Al Gore and his venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins, are sitting pretty.
I don’t particularly have a problem with Al Gore becoming the first carbon billionaire. This is a perfect example of capitalism and the dream of every kind of investor. The real rub is that Gore spends the better part of his time telling you and I how we need to cut back to save the planet. He decries capitalism, saying that our capitalist economy is destroying the earth. Environmentalists and socialists all preach about the virtues of socialist ideals while claiming capitalism is the scourge of the earth. Just listen to Michael Moore, if you can.
Gore becoming the first carbon billionaire smacks of hypocrisy on a grand scale. Mr. Gore says he’s not ashamed of “being active in business” in this country, and he shouldn’t be. We shouldn’t be ashamed either. But those like Gore want us to “feel” ashamed and responsible for the destruction of the planet by our capitalist pursuits. We wish that Gore and those like him would get out of our way, and stop pushing their agenda disguised as concern.
There is one other aspect though that really is indefensible. Gore stands to become the first carbon billionaire not by hard work and innovation, but by advocating policy change in government; Gore stands to profit from government money (our tax dollars) being awarded to those who benefit the most from those policies. Like I said, hypocrisy on a grand scale.
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