Al Gore Invests in Fracking Company E-mail Print PDF This is old news to some, however I just became aware of it. Does anyone ever wonder what the investments of our state leaders, politicians and legislators are? If you are a landowner and hold a local office you are frequently denied the right to vote on issues in your town, city or county related to natural gas. How many of those in state office possess items (such as land that just happens to be in the right place, or stocks that coincidentally climbed sky high in value) that truely are in conflict when voting on issues that affect all of us. Do you ever wonder if a Blind Trust is really blind or is just legally blind with some sight and better than average hearing ability. Good for Al Gore for standing up for his position in the face of those opposed to anything but wind and solar.JLCpulse In the Daily Currant, Politics 2/25/13 Former U.S. Vice President and environment advocate Al Gore has closed a deal to make a multi-million dollar investment in a natural gas producer that specializes in fracking. In a statement to shareholders, Canada-based PetroBakken Resources announced that Gore and his investment partners would be pumping $200 million into the company in return for a 15 percent stake. The move comes just weeks after Gore sold his shares in cable broadcaster Current to Al-Jazeera, a Middle Eastern channel backed by oil wealth. Both transactions have raised eyebrows because of the dissonance between Gores high-profile environmental activism and his investment strategy. The PetroBakken investment in particular has come under harsh scrutiny because the company develops unconventional resources like shale gas and tar sands, both highly controversial with environmentalists. Quod licet Iovi... In an interview with Canadas BNN news channel, however, Gore offered a robust defense of his actions. First of all, if I didnt invest in this company somebody else would, he explained to anchor Bill McAvoy. Do you think Mother Nature cares about the shareholding structure of companies that cause pollution? A kilogram of CO2 is a kilogram of CO2. It doesnt matter who owns the company that made it. This investment doesnt put a single extra molecule of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Well, to be frank Mr. Gore that isnt the issue, interrupted McAvoy. No one is saying that this investment increases the overall amount of pollution. What were saying it that youre failing to set a moral example. Youve asked people to cut their own carbon footprint by driving less, buying new light bulbs, insulating their houses, carpooling, et cetera. All of these things require sacrifice. Isnt it hypocritical to ask others to sacrifice financially, if you cant seem to make similar sacrifices yourself? Well, no, I dont think its hypocritical at all, Gore said. You see what I am doing, Im recycling this money. Im taking this dirty, polluting cash made from fossil fuels and putting it into my company. From there I plan to reuse it to fund new documentaries about the threat of global climate change. This isnt some Gordon Gekko thing. I consider myself to be a sort of Robin Hood. A Robin Hood? McAvoy replied. Does that mean youre committing to give all the money made from of this investment to environmental causes? Well, not quite all of the money, Gore responded. We do have expenses, after all. But I can promise to give away a decent amount, once my costs have been covered. And besides isnt natural gas a whole heck of a lot better than coal? I mean what are we really complaining about here? If we want to reduce carbon emissions, we need lower carbon forms of energy. Here it is! Solar? Wind? You cant get baseline power with that. And nuclear is expensive and decades away! Natural gas is the best hope we have of reducing carbon emissions now. Gore is a former senator from Tennessee who served as vice president in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001. He is the author of the recent book The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, and the star of the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 18:12:50 +0000
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