In response to my rant about Gore on Meet the Press, a certain boss of my acquaintance asked me what questions I would have asked. Here are a few:
- High gas prices have created extraordinary pressure for a short-term political response, which Republicans are providing with their drilling campaign. What is a better political and substantive alternative?
- Why did you do so little to coordinate with other groups and constituencies before giving this speech? Why are you building your own climate operation rather than hooking into or coordinating the many efforts already underway?
- Who has better climate and energy proposals, Obama or McCain?
- If payroll taxes fund Social Security, doesn't that mean that shifting them to carbon taxes creates a constituency for continuing carbon emissions? What would happen if the tax revenue started declining?
- Getting 100 percent of our energy from non-carbon sources would mean tearing down dozens of existing coal and natural gas power plants. How would you explain that to the American people?
- You have said that nuclear is likely to be a small part of the solution. How big a part do you think coal with carbon capture and sequestration will play?
- In our current political economy, opposition to expanding the use of renewables is centered in coal country, around towns built on coal, coal companies and the legislators representing them. There's no prospect of that constituency dipping below 40 votes in the Senate. What can be done to persuade them to drop their opposition, or to overcome it?
- How can a nationwide network of underground high-voltage transmission lines be sited and built in 10 years? Would you employ eminent domain and weather the resulting political storm?
- The bulk of electricity is used in the building sector. Why did your speech include no call to remake or retrofit America's buildings?
- Why are you and your house so fat?
(That last one is for ratings.)
Tell us in comments what you'd ask Gore.
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Comments View as Flat
sunflower Posted 5:24 am
22 Jul 2008
1000 points of disappointment
Why do your venture capital firms not seed clean energy startups?
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Jon Rynn Posted 5:51 am
22 Jul 2008
When will you talk about transportation?
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David Roberts Posted 6:02 am
22 Jul 2008
Sunflower
That's not true. Kleiner-Perkins is huge into cleantech -- probably more deeply than any other VC fund.
grist.org
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sunflower Posted 6:04 am
22 Jul 2008
They told me directly they do not do seed starts
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David Roberts Posted 6:24 am
22 Jul 2008
Hm?
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/08/technology/Kleiner_bets_t ...
grist.org
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sunflower Posted 7:02 am
22 Jul 2008
Cultivate the seeds for maximum growth
Yes, I heard from John Doerr, they are not interested in the beginnings of new clean energy technologies, lean more on the established...
There are a couple other VC firms as successful with IRRs as Kleiner, and they do look for emerging technologies on the ground, diamonds in the rough.I wish Al Gore would advocate for new radical clean energy startups at Kleiner. Seed capital is very low cost and very important.
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amazingdrx Posted 7:26 am
22 Jul 2008
Seed money
I think it is mainly connections that a company gets from VCs, not the funding that is more important. Look at the push that people like Khosla give once they have secured property rights at 100ths of a cent on the dollar compared to the eventual value of an amazon or google.
Cut a few big shots into the deal, and the next thing you know Bill C. is pushing ethanol plants for you all over the globe. Funded by Bill Gates and Branson.
It's not the cash, it's the connections. But only after a statrtup signs away it's ideas. That gives the ideas commercial "credibility". Hehey, that means they become worth stealling for a song.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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amazingdrx Posted 7:37 am
22 Jul 2008
Payroll tax or income tax?
Did you mean reducing the income tax of people with under 100k in earnings Al? In an amount equal to the carbon tax collected. That leaves out social security.
I would presume that as carbon energy is reduced the tax rate would go up or as the revenue fell and income tax cuts were eliminated to balance the budget, energy prices would fall to benefit taxpayers even more than the tax cuts did.
Here is a better question on the tax idea DR.
Al would you say this taxcut/carbon tax takes the danger out of pricing carbon with cap and trade? The danger of yet another manipulated trading bubble/crash event, this time in carbon emission permits?
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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cmiddings Posted 4:27 am
23 Jul 2008
When will you go vegan?
Or at least recommend it as the biggest impact anyone can have to reduce their carbon footprint (aside from not having any kids)?
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