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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sunflower Posted 5:24 am
22 Jul 2008
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Jon Rynn Posted 5:51 am
22 Jul 2008
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David Roberts Posted 6:02 am
22 Jul 2008
grist.org
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sunflower Posted 6:04 am
22 Jul 2008
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David Roberts Posted 6:24 am
22 Jul 2008
grist.org
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sunflower Posted 7:02 am
22 Jul 2008
And unlike the usual startup-centric VC approach, Kleiner's strategy focuses on existing alternative-energy companies that are well beyond the launch phase.
In essence, like some of the biggest private equity shops, Kleiner is becoming more of an asset gatherer, as opposed to a builder as it was in the early days of Amazon and Google. 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
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
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
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