Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Thursday, March 01, 2007

More on "Carbon Offsets"

If you're filthy rich, like Al Gore or his Hollywood limousine liberal buddies, where to you buy carbon offsets that allow you to live a lifestyle that consumes spews 20 times as much carbon as the average family? Well, in the case of Algore, he buys them from himself.

Bill Hobbs has the rest of the story.

So far, so good. So, where does Gore buy his ‘carbon offsets’? According to The Tennessean newspaper’s report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management. a company he co-founded and serves as chairman:
Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe…
As co-founder and chairman of the firm Gore presumably draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks.


Will someone tell my how this story is different from a televangelist getting caught in a motel room with a whore?

7 comments:

Nic said...

sounds kind of like the same thing as Howard Schultz buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks. if you own a company why wouldn't you support your company by making purchases from it? i'm not sure that puts them in the same league as your televangelist.

Satanic Mechanic said...

What I have found funny about Gore was his holdings in Occidental Petroleum. An enviromentalist with considerable holdings in an oil/coal company whose founder had ties with the former Soviet Union.
Or how about the time when Gore was vice-president, sold the U.S. Navy's reserve fuel supply to Occidental Petroleum and that company was the LOWEST bidder.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Nic -

The difference is that Howard Schultz doesn't run around telling everyone that we'll all die if we don't buy his coffee. Starbuck's product sells itself, while Gore's product requires fear to push it.

Unknown said...

A little off topic on Howard Schultz here, but did you read the other day where he is worried Starbucks is becoming "cookie cutter?" Really, Howard, after 12,000 locations worldwide. Who would have thought? Cheer up. There still may be some places in Seattle where two Starbucks are not across the parking of from each other.

Don't worry, I actually like Starbucks and Target. It just annoys me to no end the free pass the media and the left give them.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Tom: "A little off topic on Howard Schultz here, but did you read the other day where he is worried Starbucks is becoming "cookie cutter?"

I saw an article in the WSJ detailing how Schultz wants the company to get back to focusing on coffee for fear that they're losing their distinctiveness as they diversify away from that core product.

The very next paragraph was about how they're going to expand the availability of their hot breakfast sandwiches. I couldn't help chuckling. :)

NotClauswitz said...

The demand for consensus strikes me much more as being a demand for Solidarity, rather than of scientific agreement...