Climate Bills and a Green Economy

Private Equity Firm Closes $1 Billion Green Fund

December 3, 2009

Reuters - Private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners said on Thursday that it has closed its first fund, having raised more than $1 billion to invest primarily in the emerging green technology sector.

The fund's major investors include pension funds, both public and private, and financial institutions, the group told Reuters.

Investment areas that interest Hudson Clean Energy Partners are wind, solar, biomass, energy efficiency and energy storage.

The fund would look at grid-scale energy storage as well as automotive applications, said John Cavalier, managing partner.

The group, which is a late-stage expansion growth capital fund, invests about $50 million to $150 million on average in one transaction. It typically does not invest in early-stage technology.

The fund is looking to invest in about 10 to 12 green companies over the next couple of years.

Founded in 2007, Hudson Clean Energy Partners is led by Cavalier, a former vice chairman of Credit Suisse's investment banking department, and Neil Auerbach, who was previously with Goldman Sachs.

Cavalier said raising the funds was not easy, given the tough economy. "It was very challenging," he said.

Hudson's current portfolio includes Element Power, a global utility-scale wind and solar power generator; Recurrent Energy, a distributed solar power company; CaliSolar Inc, a solar photovoltaic wafer and cell manufacturer; SoloPower Inc, which makes solar photovoltaic thin-film cells, and Wind to Power Systems, a Madrid-based manufacturer of power electronics that enable connection of renewables to the grid.

Australia’s Parliament Defeats Global Warming Bill

December 1, 2009

Associated Press – Australia’s Parliament defeated legislation to set up a greenhouse gas emissions trading system on Wednesday, throwing a central plank of the government’s plans to combat global warming into disarray.

The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration’s proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.

The 41-33 vote followed a tumultuous debate in which the conservative main opposition party at first agreed to support a version of the government’s bill, then dramatically dumped its leader and switched sides after bitter divisions erupted within the party...

Radical Leftists Protest Chicago Climate Exchange

December 1, 2009

Illinois Review - For those conservatives whose key issue is Cap and Trade and carbon trading, there is a radical group of leftists that agree with you. They too are opposed to the concept of trading carbon emissions, only they're fully supportive of keeping the cap on carbon emissions.

Monday, a demonstration against carbon trading was held in the middle of a key intersection in downtown Chicago where 12 were arrested. The enemy is corporations and Chicago's Climate Exchange, the nation's first. From their website http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/, we read and learn:

The main target of today’s action is the Chicago Climate Exchange, the first and largest carbon market in North America. Several other “climate criminals” were visited during a march, including JP Morgan Chase, one of the leading funders of mountain top removal coal mining; Midwest Generation, the owner of Chicago’s two coal-fired power plants; and the Board of Trade, which trades in palm oil, one of the leading drivers of rainforest destruction.

The event kicked off at 11 a.m. at Federal Plaza (Adams and Dearborn Street), and is part of a national day of action called for by the Mobilization for Climate Justice in the lead-up to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen and on the 10-year anniversary of the successful shutdown of the WTO in Seattle in 1999.

“From Chicago to Copenhagen, powerful companies are cashing in on the climate crisis, taking advantage of public concern over climate change in order to make a buck. Carbon trading institutions like the Chicago Climate Exchange are privatizing the air we breathe and handing over rights to the atmosphere to the biggest polluters,” stated Angie Viands, of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Chicago.

“Carbon Trading is a fraudulent market that intensifies social injustice, does not reduce emissions in a meaningful way, and acts as a dangerous distraction from the real climate solutions we urgently need.” Event organizers seek to highlight the connections between the global drivers of climate change and local struggles for environmental justice and climate stability.

Obama’s Involvement in Chicago Climate Exchange
Obama, Maurice Strong, Al Gore Key Players Cashing in on Chicago Climate Exchange

Coal Concerns Lead U.S. Climate Bill Challenges

December 1, 2009

Reuters - For anyone trying to understand why the United States is having such a hard time joining an international effort to combat global warming, a short drive west from Washington to one of the smaller states in the country might explain a lot. Even though it has a population of only 1.8 million people in a country of 308 million, West Virginia [represented by Senator Jay Rockefeller - see note below] is not to be ignored as Congress struggles over ways to reduce carbon emissions blamed for international climate change problems. Coal is buried in nearly every nook of its 24,231 square miles (62,758 square km), and any legislation to reduce the role of dirty energy sources such as coal could hit the state hard.

...Throughout the Midwest and South of the United States, coal and coal-fired power plants are central to local energy production and to jobs.

Paul Sracic, chairman of the political science department at Youngstown State University in Ohio, a coal state that also has suffered significant manufacturing job losses in recent decades, said:

"While legislation aimed at combating global -- emphasize global -- warming might garner support in theory, it quickly loses its popularity if it is thought to cost local -- emphasize local -- jobs."

Obama will arrive in Copenhagen on December 9 at the beginning of a two-week international global warming negotiating summit lacking Congress' backing for specific climate change actions the United States could pledge...

But the White House Monday said Obama hopes he can help bring participants to the brink of a deal.

His attendance "certainly raises the stakes of the summit," said Frank O'Donnell, president of the U.S.-based Clean Air Watch. "It looked as if it would be pretty flat but Obama's presence puts it front and center, page one, around the world."

A strong performance also could jump-start legislation in the Senate, he added.

Even so, Obama will have to hit just the right chord in Copenhagen, offering enough to encourage other countries to negotiate a strong deal without promising a too-ambitious domestic plan that the U.S. Congress would refuse to ratify...

Why does the EU have the political will that could be lacking in the United States? Coal, which is not as ubiquitous in western Europe as it is in much of the United States could be one reason. But there are others.

The U.S. Senate operates in ways that make it difficult for any major initiatives to move quickly. Instead of simple majority rule, at least 60 votes out of 100 are needed for important legislation to pass. And every senator's vote, whether he or she is from the gigantic state of California or the tiny state of Rhode Island, is equally weighted.

Other factors also may have contributed to the United States dragging its feet on climate change: The issue has gotten serious attention from the White House only in the past year with Obama's election; Washington has been fixated on reforming the U.S. healthcare system all year, putting climate change on a slower track; lately there have not been monster storms, like the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, that environmentalists could point to for faster action on climate change.

And with a U.S. economy badly in the doldrums, American lawmakers are not itching to cast votes on a bill that will raise energy prices, even if only marginally...

The Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will try to cast the climate debate in economic terms, arguing that a move toward renewable energy will create jobs. It's an argument many refuse to buy so far.

Carol Browner, Obama's climate adviser, acknowledged the fight ahead.

"It will not be easy," Browner said in a November 20 speech to an environmental group, adding, "There are a lot of people to educate in the towns and cities in this country."

Note: West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller
In his excellent study of the Rockefellers, Gary Allen explains that the "Rockefeller game plan is to use population, energy, food, and financial controls as a method of people control which will lead, steadily and deliberately, into the Great Merger," a one-world government and global fascism."

"Jay Rockefeller is part of the Eastern Establishment who was exported to West Virginia so that the power could be expanded. I know that "Jay" is not representative of the state or the people of the state; he is just a parasitic, opportunistic and incompetent member of a Eugenics-minded family... The Rockefeller family has always looked down upon others and didn’t see them as human. In doing so, the family has shown they are not human, they have no morality and they are the bad seed -- I wonder how much Rockefeller knew about torture as he is a member of the Armed Services and intelligence committees -- a further proof of the disregard of humanity and the direction of the Rockefeller family. No Rockefeller should ever hold public office." - Comment by RickPA, July 22, 2009