Big Green

Chris Horner, scourge of the alarmists reiterates a point that needs to be made.

As Ed Craig had noted the day before, news services are reporting that Gore, who left office worth less than $3 million, had just plunked $35 million into a particular “firm that selects the private funds for clients and invests in makers of environmentally friendly products.” Mr. Gore and his advisors are savvy enough not to place all of his wealth in one fund, it seems — the same sources report this wealth as “well in excess of” $100 million. It’s been a good seven years.

Mr. Gore also has a position in a Silicon Valley “green” venture capital outfit — another group of people investing in companies that would be worth real money in an America with Gore-favored environmental policies. The firm sells carbon “offsets,” which are only window dressing at present, but which would be assigned artificial value through artificial scarcity under state-imposed emissions limits.

At this point I want to remind all of the skeptics, who should need no reminding, of the argument that one’s financial interests dictate or at minimum pollute one’s opinions. As a certain gentleman recently said, people who disagree with him on this issue do so “because they are locked in a coalition with rich and powerful people who take advantage of the poor for economic profit.” Like, say, increasing their energy costs? Exporting pollution to countries with lower environmental and other standards, and therefore exporting jobs?

Here we see the trouble with this line of argument. One cannot logically fault skeptics’ credibility on the grounds that they receive income related to their advocacy, without also faulting Gore’s credibility; and that of climate alarmism’s heavily compensated rock star James Hansen; and the “socially responsible” businesses aiding in the campaign in order to sell windmills, carbon offsets, and the like; and so on.

The next time you hear someone say a climate skeptic is in the pocket of Big Oil, recall that our former vice-president is traveling the world — on “planes that were going there anyway,” no doubt— to encourage leaders to whom he has unique access to get them to agree to “green” policies that will increase his personal wealth many, many times over.

Remember that the next time they scream Exxon-Mobil then wipe their hands as if they just won an argument.