http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/11/business/gore.php?pass=true

IPO’s should be coming down the road. That’s when venture capitalists and private equity get their payday.

No more czars. No drug czar. No terror czar. No czars!

That said, I’m sorry to hear that Gore declines the position. I think he’d be great. But he has to make his own decisions.

To make a mark commercially, clean-tech companies often need a substantial amount of capital to either develop the technology or demonstrate that their technology can work on an industrial scale. Investments in biofuel refineries or solar-power plants, for example, typically amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a speech last month at the MIT Energy Conference, Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr noted that Google–another Kleiner investment–required $25 million before it went public, while fuel cell company Bloom Energy has already gone through $250 million and is still developing its product.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9933245-54.html

Did you know the federal government funds research on oil & gas drilling techniques? I thought those firms had the money to fund their own research.

I have no trouble with our government funding strategic research. So far, billions have come from the private sector to do just that.

However as a taxpayer, I want private industry doing business with a stable government to not make huge returns. The Carlyle model is to grow the federal portion of their affiliate’s book of business. Bush has been happy to comply. I’d like this practice to diminish.

Can we get a ’second’ on the motion to stop using the term ‘czar.’ Please.

I vote for “Captain Planet.”

November 13th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
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It also built our railroads and communications networks. Government can help with tax incentives and good policy, but the innovation that’s going to solve the climate crisis will come primarily from private industry.

I don’t know the returns expected by KCBP or Generation Investment Management, but if they’re like The Carlyle Group’s 30% annual returns, that’s too high.

Greed and leverage drove the Wall Street debacle. We don’t need to repeat the cycle in green energy development.

Should profits be reserved for harmful products and services?

Mr. Gore also announced that as part of the agreement between the two firms (Generation Investment Management and KCBP), 100 percent of his salary as a Partner at KPCB will be donated directly to the Alliance for Climate Protection—the non-partisan foundation he chairs that focuses on accelerating policy solutions to the climate crisis.

http://www.kpcb.com/files/Fortune_article.pdf

http://www.kpcb.com/team/index.php?Al%20Gore

This is from a company press release:

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, announced today it is launching a new $500 million investment vehicle: the Green Growth Fund. The fund is intended to help speed mass market adoption of solutions to the world’s climate crisis.

KPCB separately announced today the formation of KPCB XIII (view KPCB XIII press release), a $700 million fund that will invest in greentech, information technology and life sciences ventures. Within the greentech sector, KPCB XIII will mainly back early-stage entrepreneurs, while the Green Growth Fund will support companies that have already entered their growth phase.

Al Gore is a green private equity underwriter (PEU)

http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/

Can we get a ’second’ on the motion to stop using the term ‘czar.’ Please.

Agreed. I vote for Joe the Climate Dude.

With the progressives in power he might be able to get some things done, but he’s probably afraid to trust that we can keep control out of the hands of the robber barons.