Al Gore joins famed venture capital firm

[mia]

Source: Reuters

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a career marked by second acts, Al Gore, the former vice president and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is becoming a partner at Silicon Valley's most storied venture capital firm.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said on Monday that Gore, a campaigner for action to slow global climate change, will join the Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm as a partner focused on alternative energy investments.

The venture firm, which since 1972 has backed seminal computer start-ups ranging from Sun Microsystems to Compaq Computer to Amazon.com to Google Inc, has emerged in recent years as a leading funder of alternative energy companies.

Gore, 59, is joining the Kleiner board as part of a collaboration between his Generation Investment Management fund and Kleiner Perkins to fund so-called "green" business, technology and policies that address global climate change....


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1247526320071112

---

May the Green Revolution begin!

[Love Bug]

1. Well, so much for that dream...

Hope the 'draft Al Gore' people direct their money to a different candiate, if they can find one that appeals to them. *sigh*

[JDPriestly]

2. Now do we believe that Gore is not planning to run for president.

Back the candidate who is endorsed by Friends of the Earth: John Edwards

http://johnedwards.com/media/video/iowa-tour-new-energy-economy/

A New Energy Economy
Achieving Energy Independence & Stopping Global Warming Through A New Energy Economy

Read more.
Green Collar Jobs

John Edwards has a plan to rebuild America's economy based on clean, renewable energy and good jobs. Read more.
ReduceYourCarbon.com

Pledge to reduce your carbon emissions today through simple changes in your home and life.
E-Cast: Global Warming

John Edwards talks about climate change and a new energy economy
Video: Step It Up

John Edwards speaks about energy and the environment at a Step It Up 2007 rally in Fort Myers, Florida on April 14, 2007
Video: Energy In New Hampshire

John Edwards speaks with voters, sharing his vision for transforming America's energy economy. Recorded in New Hampshire on Saturday, February 25th, 2007
Video: Energy in San Francisco

During a press conference in San Francisco, Calif., John Edwards speaks about his energy plan, Iraq, and universal health care. This video was recorded on March 27, 2007

The League of Conservation Voters, which has not yet endorsed a candidate for president, described Edwards' plan as the "most comprehensive global warming plan of any presidential candidate to date."

"Senator Edwards' plan demonstrates that he understands the magnitude of the challenge before us and the need for bold leadership to meet it," LCV President Gene Karpinski said.

"Our generation must be the one that says, 'we must halt global warming,'" said Edwards. "If we don't act now, it will be too late. Our generation must be the one that says 'yes' to alternative, renewable fuels and ends forever our dependence on foreign oil. Our generation must be the one that accepts responsibility for conserving natural resources and demands the tools to do it. And our generation must be the one that builds the New Energy Economy. It won't be easy, but it is time to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war."

Edwards believes that with American ingenuity and resolve we can turn the crisis of global warming into an opportunity—ending our dependence on foreign oil and creating a new energy economy that embraces innovation, brings rural communities back to life and creates new, good-paying jobs.

The Edwards Plan halts global warming, achieves energy independence and jumpstarts a new energy economy by:

* Capping greenhouse gas pollution starting in 2010 with a cap-and-trade system, and reducing it by 15 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, as the latest science says is needed to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
* Leading the world to a new climate treaty that commits other countries—including developing nations—to reduce their pollution. Edwards will insist that developing countries join us in this effort, offering to share new clean energy technology and, if necessary, using trade agreements to require binding greenhouse reductions.
* Creating a New Energy Economy Fund by auctioning off $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and repealing subsidies for big oil companies. The fund will support U.S. research and development in energy technology, help entrepreneurs start new businesses, invest in new carbon-capture and efficient automobile technology and help Americans conserve energy.
* Meeting the demand for more electricity through efficiency for the next decade, instead of producing more electricity.
http://johnedwards.com/issues/energy/

[Xenotime]

3. This sucks

[Dover]

4. Excellent. Any help streamlining and innovating green businesses is a HUGE asset.

It's the school of "let's not just talk about it....let's DO/MAKE it!". Much more effective place to create real tangible changes than getting bogged down in a dying government infrastructure.

YAY!!!

[DCKit]

11. He may very well be more valuable there than in the WH.

Their investments in alternative energy are forcing the issues of:

Practicality
Efficiency
Job Growth
Financial Return
Pollution/CO2 Reduction

I'm sure I missed a few, but anyone with a spare $100K in their pocket (yeah, I realize that's "them" and not "us") would be nuts not to have their name on the list for a Tesla roadster.

[Dover]

12. Yes, read this >>>

From the Fortune article:


Already they've begun to pool information. Generation came across a small company engaged in carbon trading that Kleiner is analyzing, and Kleiner has shared intelligence about which startups could threaten the established companies in Generation's portfolio. In the long term, though, they want to help drive something much larger, "bigger than the Industrial Revolution and significantly faster," as Gore puts it.

They argue that to halt global warming, nothing less will be required than a makeover of the $6 trillion global energy business. Coal plants, gas stations, the internal-combustion engine, petrochemicals, plastic bags, even bottled water will have to give way to clean, green, sustainable technologies. "What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan, and scale it globally," Gore continues. "It'd be promising too much to say we can do it on our own, but we intend to do our part."

Does that sound grandiose? Sure. Will they be accused of being partisan? Probably. Is there something incongruous about globetrotting rich guys jetting between multiple homes and lecturing the rest of us about climate change? Of course.

But there are good reasons to take Gore and Doerr seriously. Gore, who never seemed fully at ease as a presidential candidate, has demonstrated a real knack for using mass communications to influence public opinion. (He estimates that he's shown his homespun slide show on global warming more than 1,000 times, while the documentary version, An Inconvenient Truth, won him an Oscar.) Doerr, meanwhile, has displayed a real talent for deploying venture capital to create or disrupt whole industries.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/11/news/newsmakers/gore_kleiner.fortune/index.htm

[Neshanic]

5. Well, there you have it. Now who do I vote for among our gang?

[mia]

6. I hadn't realized this was such a definitive move on Gore's part.

"joining the Kleiner board as part of a collaboration between his Generation Investment Management fund and Kleiner Perkins..."

He could always resign from his board positions should he run for President.


I'm leaning toward Edwards at this point.

[swag]

7. The Fortune Magazine article indicates that Gore will be "hands on" and

deeply involved:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3063206&mesg_id=3063206

[mia]

9. Thanks for the link.

I missed that discussion - lots of additional information there.

[saracat]

17. Vote for Edwards.

[thetaoofterri]

8. I have to admit, I am pretty devastated

I know he is doing what he believes is best for the country and himself, but I guess this is as good a Sherman-esque statement as we are going to get.

I am leaning towards Edwards, too.

[mia]

10. According to the "Fortune" article, Gore his still holding out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2264275


At times his schedule seems downright presidential: the week after our interview in Nashville, Gore visited the leaders of France, Germany, and Austria to talk about the environment. Says Gary Hirschberg, a climate-change activist and the CEO of Stonyfield Farm, who has known Gore for years: "I had an easier time seeing him when he was in the White House."

Technically, of course, Gore was never "in" the White House. But he's been dealing with continual speculation about whether he still has designs on the place. Is there a chance he'll jump into the race? "It's a luxury to be able to focus on what you are most passionate about all the time," he says. When asked to elaborate he adds, "Casting about for words to describe this with precision is less productive than just saying that what I'm doing feels like the right thing to do." So the answer is probably not, though like any good politician, he's left the door open.


Many of us will hold on until he says it: "If drafted, I will not run...."

[progressoid]

13. That doesn't sound like somebody who will run for president

in eight weeks.

[earth mom]

14. I'm devastated & can't stop wondering why Gore just didn't flat out say "NO"?

Why did he leave us all hanging for so long?! :argh:

When oh when is anything EVER going to go our way again?

It's been 7 years of cruel disappointment after cruel disappointment on top of a lot of heartache and frustration and now we're in for more. No doubt about it. :cry:

[kimmerspixelated]

15. I think he will ask Draft Gore.com to donate the money to his new

venture, OR, he could still run.....you never know...this might be a great launching pad, but it does look like a happier place for him to be, though.

[saracat]

16. Please give that support to Edwards.He is the only viable choice.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

18. Count me in, Edwards is the only real Democrat that can win the general election.

I had hopes for a Gore salvation but I'm glad he has made this definitive affirmation that he is not as patriotic as I was lead to believe. The country needs him right now and he can do more for the environment and the world as president than he could every hope to accomplish as a private citizen. Either he doesn’t have the courage or he knows the system is so corrupt and stacked against him that there is no way he could every win. I don't believe it is question of courage but things are really bad for everyone if it is the latter.

[Pastiche423]

19. No f'ing way

A former DLCer that co-sponsored and voted for the IWR? No thank you.

I believe the majority of Gore votes will go to Kucinich - the real progressive.

[robcon]

21. The majority of Gore's supporters went elsewhere a long time ago.

It is only the fringe bitter-enders who have held out any hope for Gore to run. The conclusion that most others came to months ago - that Gore had decided not to run - is finally dawning a few stragglers who hadn't gotten the message.

[halobeam]

20. agreed.