Rep. Blackburn Queries Al Gore On His Personal Stake In Cap And Trade Legislation
Posted on April 24, 2009 at 1:19 pmMarsha Blackburn questions Al Gore’s motivations behind supporting cap and trade legislation because of his investments in “green startups” and his position as a partner at Kleiner Perkins:
Rep. Blackburn: …You talked a little about [that] people have to have trust in what you’re doing and I think you know that this bill is going to fundamentally change the way America works and it’s going to effect families. We’ve all talked about how it affects individuals and what it’s going to do to their budgets and… ah… what it’s going to do to jobs in this country. And given the magnitude of those changes, I think it’s really important that no suspicion or shadow fall on the foremost advocates of climate change legislation. So I wanted to give you the opportunity to kind of clear the air about your motives and to set the record straight about your motives for some of your former constituents. And I’ve got an article from [the] October 8 [2008] New York Times Magazine about a firm called Kleiner Perkins… a capital firm called Kleiner Perkins. Are you aware of that company?
Al Gore: Well, yes. I’m a partner at Kleiner Perkins.
Rep. Blackburn: So you’re a partner in Kleiner Perkins. OK. Now they have invested about a billion dollars in 40 companies that are going to benefit from cap-and-trade legislation. So is the legislation that we are discussing here today, is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?
Al Gore: [Sigh]… I believe that the transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us. And I have invested in it. But every penny that I have made, I have put right into a nonprofit, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to spread awareness of why we have to take on this challenge. And, Congresswoman, if you’re… 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.
Rep. Blackburn: No, sir, I’m not making accusations. I’m asking questions that have been asked of me. And individuals… constituents… that were seeking a point of clarity. So I am asking…
Al Gore: I understand exactly what you’re doing Congresswoman. Everybody here does.
Rep. Blackburn: Well, are you willing to divest yourself of any profit. Does all of it go to a not-for-profit. Is it an education not-for-profit?
Al Gore: Every penny that I have made has gone to it. Every penny from the movie, the book… uh… from any investments from renewable energy. I’ve been willing to put my money where my mouth is. Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?
Rep. Blackburn: I am simply asking for clarification on the relationship.
Al Gore: I’m proud of it. I’m proud of it.
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Comments
42 Responses to “Rep. Blackburn Queries Al Gore On His Personal Stake In Cap And Trade Legislation”
A legitimate question. Bottom line … Gore is there lobbying for Cap and Trade and will profit with his investment(s) in “green energy companies” if Cap and Trade is passed and apparently, he (Gore) thinks there is nothing wrong with this.
There were two condescending sighs that I noticed by Irene Sendler’s nemesis …
Marsha Blackburn is a moron. A hilariously inept moron.
Marsha Blackburn is trying to demean the foremost representative of climate change activists with a cheap and tawdry effort to show that he wishes only to enrich himself. She must surely know that he donates his profits to the foundation and does not profit, as he did the profits from his movie. An organization designed to provide capital to green businesses is obviously useful.
This silly and snide woman represents everything that is tawdry and unseemly in the modern GOP.
Didn’t a parade of oil industry execs appear in committee earlier in the week? Where was the Congressidiot’s outrage then?
Someone haned the CongressMAN her ass on a platter ….
Seems like Chicken Little gets a little defensive when the questions get hard. He got that way with me once.
“He got that way with me once.”
Riiiiiight.
“…I have been working on this problem for 30 years…” ROFLMAO! this from the blowhard who invented the internet…this fat dumbass has no limits
The condescending sighs were my favorite part. They reminded me of how Gore got his tail whipped in a debate against the supposedly inferior George W. Bush.
As for all you whiners up above, I know you hate it when someone from the right takes a trick out of your own playbook. I guess next time a Republican is accused of profiteering off of public policy, we’ll have to whip out the trusty “you don’t know me” defense.
Lets see - AL Gore flunked out of Vanderbilt twice, then got a job at the Tennessean, then went to Washington as a Congressman, then became a Senator, then became VP - and now he has a large house on Lynwood Blvd in Belle Meade. Is there any chance that you guys really believe that he has donated all his profits from all the things he has done - to do anything but enrich himself?
And then he was given the Nobel Prize. Irene Sendler would be very proud of him I’m sure …
Google her if you don’t know who she is. Or here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVw1PANUcdg
Yea, Irene would be very proud of Al …
Congressman Blackburn asked a legitimate question to which the answer was not given, but was yes.
Two points.
1) If this were a Republican, there would be press people screaming for an investigation of potential conflict of interest.
2) I worry less about politicians who are ‘money corrupt’ and more about those who seek glory and power in the guise of serving the public. Put differently, if ManBearPig doesn’t exist, a wouldbe hero must invent it. Or exaggerate the danger posed by ManBearPig.
If this were a Republican y’all would be saying he put his money where his mouth is. T. Boone Pickens, anyone?
Someone please run this carpetbagging Mississippian out of Tennessee.
Jen,
Pickens makes no bones about wanting to make a profit and do what he sees as good. He doesn’t portray himself as St. Francis of Woodstock.
Also Pickens debates his critics rather than stir up a McCarthy-like condemnation of anyone who questions his beliefs, especially professionals in the field.
Seems like Chicken Little gets a little defensive when the questions get hard. He got that way with me once.
You got hard with Al Gore?
[sigh]
Was that really necessary?
I don’t understand how people can follow bore. He is obviously trying to accumulate as much wealth as he can. How much can you spend and how many houses do 2 people need?
Iddy, some of us pay attention to the entire climate change issue - including Al Gore’s small role in bringing it to public attention - because we are curious and want to know the facts.
Some folks only pay attention when they hear, read or see what they believe. Others try to pay attention to a wider range of sources.
Where do you fall in that range?
She’s an embarassment and came off quite poorly in the exchange. Gore, and the global warming folks, should be delighted. For all his issues, he looked like a rock star in how he handled the exchange. Only Marsha could turn Gore into a hero. Between Blackburn and Gingrich– what intellectual firepower!– the environmental movement couldn’t pick better opponents. GOP just doesn’t get how discredited their folks remain.
Marsha Blackburn is brainless. She knows as the whole world knows that VP Gore does not profit from “Climate Change.” He has other business that is profitable such as Current TV and his investment company. The GOP is so intimidate by a smart person that they can’t think in a positive way even if good is being done. Rep. Blackburn got in over her head. Someone else put the words in her mouth and she was stupid enough to ask the question.
“He has other business that is profitable such as Current TV”
Heh, Current TV a profitable venture: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10094101-36.html
“He has other business that is profitable such as Current TV”
Heh, Current TV a profitable venture:
http://industry.bnet.com/media/1000405/media-exclusive-layoffs-on-tap-at-current-tv/
JB - don’t leave out this one either: “and his investment company”
That would be the investment company that invests in “green” technology which would turn huge profits should a Cap and Trade system be instituted. No conflict here… nothing to see… move along like good sheep and just leave your money by the door on your way out.
It is just like how Algore can claim he offsets his carbon footpint by paying himself to purchase carbon credits in his own investment firm. I wonder if Algore used public mass transit to get to DC? Did he move around DC on public mass transit? I reckon those systems are just for the common folk who pollute too much. Algore on his private jet doesn’t count because he cares more than we do.
“Every penny I HAVE made (note past tense). Why not give his interest in Kleiner Perkins to the non-profit? Answer: he doesn’t intend to do that.
” Marsha Blackburn is brainless. She knows as the whole world knows that VP Gore does not profit from “Climate Change.””
Wow, a truly naive statement. Please do not include me in your myopic “whole world”.
Is it really a stretch to think the son of the “Senator from Oxidental Petroleum” might know a thing or two about profiteering from legislation for which he advocates?
So, just to recap, no one can ever promote anything they might profit from at some point?
Excuse me, Occidental Petroleum. I combined their ticker symbol with the spelling of their name.
Joe, is your last name Ford, by chance?
And yet, no one had a problem with a spoiled-little- rich-boy-son-of-an-oil tycoon president who constructed his policies to make sure his friends in many businesses made ungodly profits. Let’s not act like this didn’t happen. Also, Gore is about as far as you can get from Cheney, especially when it comes to trust and giving a damn about the country.
SoG: Nope, not a Ford.
Yes, Jeanne, you are the first person to ever bring that up. Nobody’s said a word about that until you did, right now. How did that dastardly George W. Bush ever get away with it?
It’s amazing to me how people like you can really believe the President of the United States would start a war so his friends, not himself, would somehow profit. Yet, if someone dare insinuate self-interest might be a motivation when a private citizen (with millions invested) lobbies for regulatory change, they are somehow way off base. Do you understand why you sound a bit of your meds, Jeanne?
Questioning his motives is fine. Encouraged even. If Gore’s pushing the legislation just so he can profit from it, yeah it’s probably a bad idea. I think it’s has more to do that he believes in his cause and is simultaneously pushing for legislation and running a business that furthers that cause.
Personally, I’m against cap-and-trade. A carbon tax is more economically sensible.
It never ceases to amaze me how liberals react when they are presented with irrefutable facts… they first call the messenger brainless, stupid, and intellectually deficient… always failing to accept the facts and address the issue directly. It must be a terrible burden to always be smarter, and intellectually superior to all conservatives. But the first piece of evidence that the liberal is out-gunned is they start out calling names and pointing fingers (and avoiding the issues at hand)! Can someone explain this to me? Is it genetic… or generic?
Well, Curmudgeon, the irrefutable fact is that Gore is donating his profits to a nonprofit organization, and none of it is going into his pockets.
So the constantly repeated lies from talk radio have no substance to them. (Unknown fact in the world of the dittohead morons: When Rush repeats something over and over and over again in an authoritative manner, that doesn’t make it true.)
So that addresses the issue directly.
As for Marcia Blackburn and you being dumbasses, I suppose that is an irrefutable fact as well.
Tennrod
Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore will author a new book titled Our Choice as a follow up to his Oscar Award® winning movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Available November 3, 2009, the book will “comprehensively describe the real solutions to global warming” with all proceeds benefiting the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit organization for which Gore is the chairman.
Al Gore is chairman and founder of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management (GIM). According to Gore, the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are going green. “Generation Investment Management, purchases — but isn’t a provider of — carbon dioxide offsets,” in which he purchases his carbon offsets.
So what?
Yes, Gore is living VERY WELL. And he has many of the wealthiest people in the whole world behind him. Any of you that believe a congresswoman has no right to ask such a question might as well send me a check. I promise you, I will put it right into my own non-profit the very next day. HOW DARE YOOOUUUU!
“HE BETRAYED THIS COUNTRY. HE PLAYED ON OUR FEARS!”
And what does Gore do every day. They’re all crooks, but this man is loathsome.
We are all at risk of literally walking outside one morning and melting and/or exploding in a ring of fire and some are worried about whether Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore makes a few bucks on a movie? It just makes no sense. But now I must go, ManBearPig is outside trying to tip over my Prius.
You are only allowed to make money and be profitable if you are a Republican and give it to the Grand Ole Party.
“You are only allowed to make money and be profitable if you are a Republican and give it to the Grand Ole Party.”
Um yeah, and your research is faulty and obviously results oriented if you take money from folks who are doubtful about the horrors and reality of pending doom and death from global warming/climate change; because there is NO money to be gained from promoting the pending and ultimate death and destruction of global warming/climate change.
“You are only allowed to make money and be profitable if you are a Republican and give it to the Grand Ole Party.”
Um yeah, and your research is faulty and obviously results oriented if you take money from folks who are doubtful about the horrors and reality of pending doom and death from global warming/climate change; because there is NO money to be gained from promoting the pending and ultimate death and destruction of global warming/climate change.
Now I must go, and create a green job.