Climate Bills and a Green Economy

The Rise of the Carbon Fat Cats

The ‘carbon market’ – trading in an invisible gas which cannot be used – has involved the redistribution of resources to unproductive green pursuits and the creation of a vast bureacracy. Let’s bring it down before it gets any bigger.

November 27, 2009

Spiked - Adam Smith and Karl Marx disagreed about many things, but they would surely have concurred that the very idea of a ‘carbon market’ is bonkers. Carbon dioxide is an invisible gas and a naturally occurring substance. When it is produced as a waste product from another process, like burning fossil fuel, it cannot be used for anything else. How on earth could carbon dioxide, as waste product, have a value and be subject to exchange? How could it become the gaseous analogue to money or gold, an atmospheric ‘universal equivalent’ into which other gases can be converted?

The carbon market in 2007 was worth $64billion: how could this be? A market is supposed to be the exchange of products that are the result of somebody’s work, for the satisfaction of somebody else’s needs. Smith stated that the value of the product is proportional to the amount of work expended in it: ‘The real price of everything’, he wrote in the Wealth of Nations, ‘is the toil and trouble of acquiring it’ (1). This goes for markets in bread or tables, iTunes or diamonds, no matter what nature the ‘work’ or how frivolous the ‘need’. But a market in carbon: quoi?

Quietly and without fuss, all the rules of classical economics are being torn up – in a way that could be very foolish indeed. As we approach the deal-making at the UN conference on climate change at Copenhagen, it is worth thinking about exactly what we are doing here.

What is a carbon market?

At present, there are several fragmentary carbon markets. The biggest by far is the European Emissions Trading Scheme, tied to EU-wide carbon targets (worth $50 billion in 2007) (2); then the much smaller Australian New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme, and voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange. What these markets trade is not carbon dioxide itself, but carbon dioxide emissions reductions – either unused carbon credits, or certified ways in which carbon dioxide production has been reduced...

Al Gore, World’s First ‘Carbon Billionaire,’ Raking in Profits from Climate Change

November 4, 2009

Daily Mail - A former American vice-president has been accused of making billions of dollars from championing climate change issues. Al Gore, who left office in 2001, has become an outspoken green campaigner. Yesterday he was forced to defend himself after details of his financial deals with energy-saving companies emerged in the New York Times.

Mr Gore had invested in a small California firm seeking financing for its energy-saving technology last year. His firm invested $75 million in the company, Silver Springs, which produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. He was then made an unpaid consultant for the company.

Last week his investment appeared to pay off: The U.S. Energy Department announced $3.4billion in smart grid grants. Of those grants, $560million went to companies with which Silver Springs has contracts.

Now Right-wing critics and global warming sceptics claim Mr Gore is about to become the world’s first ‘carbon billionaire’ in a sleazy scenario that would see him profiting from government policies he supports that would direct billions to the business ventures he is invested in.

Mr Gore – who also makes more than £60,000 a year for speaking engagements – hit back yesterday, saying he was just putting his money where his mouth is.

He launches his latest book Our Choice: A Plan To Solve The Climate Crisis this week, a sequel to an earlier work which was also a popular film, An Inconvenient Truth.

Mr Gore, 61, is a partner in venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers which has interests in alternative energy and energy-efficient technology. He is also co-founder of the London-based Generation Investment Management, which has shares in eco-energy companies.

Speaking on U.S. ABC TV show Good Morning America, Mr Gore defended his business activities and said he believed the U.S. would succeed in making the switch to renewable energy sources.

‘I am proud to have put my money where my mouth is for the past 30 years,’ he said.

‘And though that is not the majority of my business activities, I absolutely believe in investing in accordance with my beliefs and my values.’

The book explores possible solutions to climate change, including forest management, geo-thermal energy and nuclear power generation, which come from a series of ’solutions summits’ held with environmental experts at his Tennessee home.

Mr Gore is a regular visitor to Capitol Hill where he exerts pressure on members of Congress to pass legislation that cuts emissions. In April, he reacted angrily to a question from Republican Marsha Blackburn about a conflict of interest with his business connections. He said:

‘Congresswoman, if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed, you don’t know me.’

Mr Gore was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and served as vice-president to Bill Clinton between 1993 and 2001.

Cap and Trade – Gore’s ‘Gravy Train’