Senate Testimony Masks a Personal Financial Agenda
Washington,
D.C., January 28, 2009—In
testimony today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, former Vice
President Al Gore recommended that Congress take dramatic action to combat the
threat of global warming, including passing the pending economic stimulus bill
which includes billions of dollars in taxpayer handouts for alternative energy.
Gore neglected to emphasize, however, that he is the Chairman of a for-profit
investment fund that would directly benefit from greater subsidies for
so-called “clean” energy projects.
“Former Vice
President Al Gore has warned that we need to examine the financial interests of
people in the global warming debate. Fair enough,” said Competitive Enterprise
Institute Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “What we
discover in looking at the policies that Mr. Gore advocated in his Senate
testimony is that they will make him and his friends extremely wealthy at the
expense of consumers, who will be stuck with skyrocketing energy prices.”
Gore’s company, Generation Investment Management, states
that its investment strategy, in part, is to “find, fund and accelerate green
business.” The companies targeted by renewable energy subsidies, grants and
other federal spending are the same ones Gore and his partners are betting on
to turn large profits. There’s nothing wrong with making a profit, but doing so
at taxpayer expense rather than in a competitive marketplace is generally
considered cynical and greedy – far from the disinterested environmental
activist image that Gore presents to the world.
“Gore’s concerns are overblown and his ‘solutions’ remain
grossly expensive pipe dreams,” said Senior Fellow Iain Murray. “Global warming
is a potential risk, but Gore’s program represents a potentially disastrous
misallocation of resources – straight from our wallets to his bank account.”
Energy Experts Available for
Interviews
Myron Ebell
Director of Energy
& Global Warming Policy
202-320-6685
Iain Murray
Senior Fellow
202-331-2257
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan
public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited
government. For more information about
CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.