When Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn confronted Al Gore with his profiteering from global warming legislation at today’s House Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing on the Waxman-Markey climate bill, Al Gore said that every penny he ever made from his business activities went into non-profit efforts. [See transcript below.]
That is a flat-out lie, according to this March 6, 2008 Bloomberg report that indicates that Al Gore invested $35 million of his own money in various for-profit endeavors.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore left the White House seven years ago with less than $2 million in assets, including a Virginia home and the family farm in Tennessee. Now he’s making enough to put $35 million in hedge funds and other private partnerships.
Gore invested the money with Capricorn Investment Group LLC, a Palo Alto, California, firm that selects the private funds for clients and invests in makers of environmentally friendly products, according to a Feb. 1 securities filing. Capricorn was founded by billionaire Jeffrey Skoll, former president of EBay Inc. and an executive producer of Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary film on global warming.
Kudos to Rep. Blackburn for asking one of the “10 Questions for Al Gore” and exposing Gore as the fundamentally dishonest operator that he is.
Here’s the transcript from the April 24, 2009 exchange between Al Gore and Rep. Blackburn. Note that not only does Al Gore lie to Rep. Blackburn, he tries to turn the tables by implicitly accusing her of being anti-business.
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.
Rep. Blackburn: Thank you and I appreciate the answer…
Not a problem, drgroovejb. I confuse myself sometimes.
Yes Matt. We’re going to make tons and tons of money ruining your generations environment. We’ve been working very hard to find the best ways to accomplish this.
We’ve also squirreled away our own supplies of clean water and air for ourselves and our children so they don’t have to use yours.
Sorry, looks like you’ll actually have to get a real job and worry about real things.
Apparently you didn’t notice Scalise verbally rip algore’s guts out when he questioned him. Did you go blind and deaf during that part of it? Sorry, i didn’t mean to be insensitive about your condition. Kumbaya, lord, kumbaya… “ho,ho,ho, ho chi minh!! oh, man I miss the ’60’s. Wow, Dude.
My mis-directed quote to cbullitt actually belonged to you.
CBULLITT. It seems that I have misconstrued your intent on this issue. I apologize. Apparently you are one of the good guys. I should have looked further before firing from the hip.
Excellent. This scam artist needs to be exposed. Said it before, say it again: How does giving AlGore money for “carbon credits” do a thing to actually cure any problem that MIGHT exist?
CBullit you are a fool!
You can’t stand toe-to toe with me on GW so you resort to snail like pseudo-comedy to TRY to make any kind of point. Let’s really very liberal of you
Tell you what, when I get my first electric bill that is 2-3 times larger than last year I will send you a bill for the balance.
Cool?
A day later and folks are still coming over from the link I out up–superb. These AGW scumbags need to be exposed at every opportunity. Thanks for keeping the running review, I, luckily was at work or I’d have blasted my TV. Here’s a present, a little humor to take the edge of this crap.
http://cbullitt.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/scientific-breakthrough-agw-zombies-exhibit-identifiable-genetic-markers/
They (the fascists running our country) would not let Christopher Monckton speak counter-point to Gore’s erroneous assumptions that “global warming” is both man-made and catastrophic. The reason is that Monckton is way smarter than Gore and, arguably, the foremost expert in so-called “Climate change” along with Steve Milloy. He would have embarrassed Gore.
There, in effect, has been NO warming of the planet in over a decade.
The seas are not rising and they are cooling ask NASA. We have a total
sea ice increase between the 2 poles of approx. 600,000 sq. km. Ask NOAA.
The AGT has fallen 0.8 degrees F since the purported highest AGT in 1997.
During that time CO2 has risen 25ppm. Explain to me again how driving cars
and exhaling have increased AGT? I don’t get it!
Please note: Gore will not debate the issue with anyone ever. Even when he is offered his standard $200,000.00 fee.
If you would like to debate with me on these points just say when.
Cap and trade is a extremely corruptible liberal scheme simply to squeeze a huge amount of tax from individual American citizens to foot the bill for for socialism.
I was in the room, Al Gore completely owned Blackburn. The audience was laughing at her.
Hey Millroy, do you stand to benefit financially by trying to ruin my generation’s future?
I was in the room, Al Gore completely owned Blackburn. The audience was laughing at her.
Hey Millroy, do you stand to benefit financially by trying to ruin my generation’s future?
I guess a man can’t lie about his investments in green energy but he can invade two countries to help his oil shares. Makes perfect sense. Thanks for clearing that up.
Wow, Gore lied. This must be the first time he was caught in a lie; today.
There are no doubt massive ethical problems with Gore profiting from the bill he hopes to have passed. However, I believe his heart is in the right place. The passion he displays for our planet and environment is astounding and I have yet to see any evidence that leads me to believe that his first priority isn’t the environment. Perhaps his second is profit but then in all seriousness, who wouldn’t want to make billions of dollars. Can’t say I blame the guy. He acknowledges the problem, and he is fighting tooth and nail to fix it. Hell, I hope he makes a fortune doing so.
You know who else wants to “control your life”? Doctors. Airline pilots. Engineers and architects. It’s just incredible how these people think they are going to protect us from the dangers of the world. Don’t they believe in individual responsibility???
As former divinity student, Al Gore should be aware of the ethical problems that he is causing. If I tried to tell the state that I had detected Gremlins under the bridges and had a fix to prevent them from bringing down the bridge, I hope that before the state opened the treasury to any demand for money, it would at least investigate. The federal government has been paying Global Warming advocates for their work for over ten years now. I think I would be put in jail as a hoaxter for doing what Al Gore is doing. I would set up anti-bridge gremlin corporations to take in road taxes. Gremlin Slayers would make three times the average salary. They would also get to go across the bridges free.
Why do we put con men in jail? After all don’t they buy stuff and keep the economy moving too? Why did Harry Houdini struggle so hard against spiritualist who took advantage of people? We all know on a certain level that it is wrong to make money on a lie, deception or even an innocent mistake even if the mark is unaware or actually believes to receive a benefit. I hope the pharmacist who poisoned the polo ponies gives the money back because he made a mistake in formulation, but some mistakes are so profound, the perpetrator can never repay.
The so called green jobs created by the cap and trade scam will only divert capital to useless and consumptive enterprises if there is no global warming or if the activity has no chance of altering global warming. If you think that we won’t pull out all the stops to prevent pulling the plug on this Global Warming Hoax once it gets entrenched in the economy, just look at all of the resources that are engaged in saving the auto companies. It won’t be long before they will be taking credit for the cooling cycle that we seem to be in.
If we could control the climate, it is only a matter of time before we misuse it as a weapon. If we actually cool the planet and create world hunger, how will we compensate the victims? What human calculus will be used to decide if lowering the temperature in one place might be good enough for some people evcn if it is bad for others. In a world like that, good and bad can not be a matter of opinion nor can it be relative.
I hope some one sends his not for profit profits to the people in congress…he is shameless, also Pelosi has considerable holdings in “green energy”, and Obama has a good friend lined up to manage the cap and trade….looks like the EPA is going to do the dirty work for congress anyway……maybe we should all volunteer to hold our breathe or not plant any trees…this makes me crazy