KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 
Its not his fault that green-energy has been a lousy investment. With  the govt subsidies for fossil fuels almost TRIPLE those of green energy it makes it hard to get a bigger part of the market.
In other words the US subsidies are depressing the price of fossil fuels so much that it makes solar and wind less attractive. But as we see with whats happening in California with $6 gas I'm sure that will be changing.

I bet those in California with electric cars are laughing at all the fools still driving gas engines down there. 

 

Green-energy investments are necessary

 buzz wrote: 
  
I think he's been in Denver to long.

Hey Al! Get out of Denver!!!

I just don't get that guy.

 miamizsun wrote: 
Next on his agenda, a campaign against thin air at high altitudes.

Al Gore Walks Away From Green Energy

Bill Gunderson

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — When Al Gore talks, people listen. Just ask the folks who hand out Academy Awards and Nobel Peace Prizes.

Al Gore also talks to investors. Since 2007, the former Vice President in Bill Clinton's administration has been preaching the benefits of putting your money where his mouth is: Alternative energy.

But if Al Gore has any message for investors today, it might very well be this: "Stay the hell away from alternative energy!"

Not that he would say so. At least out loud.

Reading through the promotional materials he puts out through his company, Generation Investment, it is hard to tell whether his "Client Update" is selling investments in his Climate Solutions Fund or memberships in the Sierra Club.

"Scientific fundamentals continue to point to a need for urgent action on climate," Gore says. Just like his Oscar-winning movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," it has lots of cool charts and graphics.

Climate policy is still firmly on the political agenda and corporate climate-related activity is increasingly strategic. Innovation is driving costs down and improving the business case for low carbon and high efficiency solutions.

This goes on for 20 pages. But even Gore does not seem to be listening anymore.

Gore's company files a quarterly report with the SEC that tells a different story about the 30 stocks in its portfolio. His company's public investments in wind, solar, biomass and other alternative energy to combat climate change are practically non-existent.

But his portfolio is top-heavy in high-tech, medical instruments, and even more pedestrian investments in companies such as Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), Colgate Palmolive (CL), Nielsen (NLSN), Strayer University (STRA), and Qualcomm (QCOM).

He is also big in China, with stakes in a big Chinese travel agency, CTrip, and China's largest medical equipment manufacturer, Mindray Medical.

And if you want a piece of the natural gas pipeline game — heavily dependent on the environmentally suspect fracking — you can find that in Gore's portfolio as well with Quanta Services (PWR).

Generation Investment even had a piece of Staples (SPLS) at one point — but that was before anyone realized that was Mitt Romney's love child.

Not an Apple (AAPL) to be found, despite the fact that Gore sits on its board of directors. But Generation Investment at one time did have a piece of General Electric (GE) and Procter & Gamble (PG) and that global warming game-changer, PayChex (PAYX).

This is "urgent action on climate"? If you say so, Mr. Gore.

If Generation Investment is a bit gun-shy on alternative energy, perhaps it is because of its catastrophic brush with First Solar.

 romeotuma wrote: 

Well, the fact that they do not disclose their funding sources is enough of a red flag for me. I work for a non-profit and it's kind of an unwritten rule that, as an NGO, if you want to have ANY credibility at all you need to be transparent about any possible bias generated by funding sources.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 

The Science and Public Policy Institute was founded by a long-time Republican staffer named Robert Ferguson. According to the SPPI website, Ferguson "has 26 years of Capitol Hill experience, having worked in both the House and Senate. He served in the House Republican Study Committee, the Senate Republican Policy Committee; as Chief of Staff to Congressman Jack Fields (R-TX) from 1981-1997, Chief of Staff to Congressman John E. Peterson (R-PA) from 1997-2002 and Chief of Staff to Congressman Rick Renzi (R-AZ) in 2002."

Until recently, Ferguson worked for an oil-industry funded think tank called Frontiers of Freedom. The Frontiers of Freedom are one of the most active groups in the attack on climate science and have received over $1 million in grants from oil giant ExxonMobil.

Ferguson ran the "Center for Science and Public Policy."

According to ExxonSecrets, "Ferguson set up the Center for Science and Public Policy in early 2003, after receiving a $100,000 grant from ExxonMobil in 2002. Exxon has continued to fund the Center each year since then, to the tune of at least $50,000 a year."

On its website SPPI does not detail the sources of its funding or outline its approach to disclosure.

 jagdriver wrote: 
I don't trust any man that throws like a little girl.

And to think there would be no RP had Al not invented the Internet!

Very interesting...
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/

Especially this...
 http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/fallacies.html