Day: April 6, 2009

Green rent-seekers ‘see nirvana coming’

As reported in the April 2 Energy & Environment News article, “Wall Street sees ‘bucks to be made’ in House climate plan,” the folks that brought us Enron and credit default swaps are back:

NEW YORK — In the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, city officials and Wall Street executives are talking about turning the battered U.S. financial center into a global hub of green finance and environmental commodities trading.

The spark: draft energy and climate legislation unveiled by two senior House Democrats in Washington this week…

What stands out to many here is that the bill reflects the position on cap and trade for greenhouse gases outlined by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a green coalition heavy on corporate membership.

“It’s very heavily influenced by that,” said Rubén Kraiem, a partner with the energy law practice Covington & Burling…

And money managers are lining up for the challenge…

Though unemployment is expected to continue to rise and the deep recession is seen lasting throughout 2009, analysts say the stock markets appear to be ending their wild swings and are bottoming out. Those who have cash on hand are looking to environmentally friendly asset plays for places to invest.

Some 97 green hedge funds are actively operating, and more are expected to enter the fray as economic conditions improve…

… One venture capital manager, ironically, compared the momentum to the start of the infamous dot-com push, noting that virtually all funds now take it for granted they need exposure to renewable energy and cleantech — regardless of how good the returns are.

“There are bucks to be made,” said Neal Dikeman, a founding partner of Jane Capital. “Huge playground.“…

“A lot of trading is going to reside here in New York,” said Peter Fusaro, chairman of Global Change Associates and organizer of the Green Trading Summit. “I can see nirvana coming.“…

“We’re here about the environment first and making money second,” Ertel said. “We have to be self-policing.“

Yeah, like that last quote will happen.

‘Useful Idiot’ of the Day

David Frum’s dubious attempt to “[build] a conservatism that can win again” features a piece from Washington, DC attorney John Murdock entitled “Global Warming: It’s true, get used to it.”

An earlier posting by Murdock reveals his basic thinking:

  • CO2 could do to Earth what it is doing on Venus;
  • Increases in CO2 and temperature are correlated; and
  • CO2 levels are higher today than they have been for thousands of years.

If this is the “the new conservatism under construction,” Murdock and Frum (who edits the NewMajority.com blog) are going to need hard hats.

Read Steve Milloy’s FoxNews.com column “Al Gore and Venus Envy” for a debunking of the Venus point and watch Steve Milloy’s award-winning YouTube video “Al Gore debates global warming” for a debunking of the other CO2 factoids.

Worse than his ignorance is Murdock’s cavalier dissing of columnist George Will, Chris Horner (author of Red Hot Lies), Weather Channel founder John Coleman and Steve Milloy (author of Green Hell).

For his clients’ sakes, I sure hope Murdock is better at lawyering than blogging about global warming.

Finally, conservatism doesn’t need to be rebuilt; it just needs to offer candidates that are actual and articulate conservatives — i.e., no Bushes and/or McCains need apply. Meantime, the greens will no doubt applaud the well-intentioned fools who call themselves “conservatives” while advancing the socialist cause in America.

Subprime lending returns, now colored green

As we continue to dig out of the mess caused by liar loans and other subprime hijinks, the New York Times reports that “green banks” are springing up.

How will green banks decide to lend money? In the case of the start-up e3bank,

Instead of following the industry standard — basing loans on a borrower’s ability to pay and the up-front costs of the building — e3bank officers will be authorized to modify debt-to-income and loan-to-value proposals. Financial products would be tailored to account for the up-front costs of more expensive green projects but also factor in cost savings from lower energy consumption that would be netted over the course of the loan.

Looks like there won’t be any rest for the weary FDIC.

Greens oppose ‘cash-for-clunkers’

The New York Times reports that the greens oppose government programs that encourage drivers to trade in older cars with higher emissions for newer cars with lower emissions (a.k.a. cash-for-clunkers) because:

For starters, some environmentalists have worried that these programs could distract attention (and funds) from investments in public transport. And other critics say these programs could push people to drive more than they might have done otherwise.

The Vine blog at The New Republic suggested that such programs could end up generating more emissions from increased car manufacturing — and some critics have raised concerns that a “cash for clunkers” program in the United States would allow tax deductions for very heavy passenger vehicles that are made in America – like the Hummer and the Ford Expedition.

In one of his most recent articles, George Monbiot, an environmental campaigner, academic, and columnist for The Guardian in Britain, suggested that such programs have little to do with carbon-dioxide reduction, and amount to little more than “hand-outs for the car firms, resprayed green to fool the incautious buyer.”

Steve Milloy’s new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, spotlights what the greens are doing to achieve a car-less society.

Toyota: Trucks profitable, hybrids not

As pointed out by George Will in his most recent column,

In February, Toyota sold 13,600 Tundra and Tacoma pickups and 7,232 Priuses. It sells the Prius at a loss, which it can afford to do because it makes pots of money selling pickups.

Read Steve Milloy’s Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them to find out how long it took the Big Three automakers to figure out that trucks and cheap gas were their keys to survival.