SubscribeGore Buys Carbon Offsets From Own Company
From the the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal:
The Color of Money
BY JAMES TARANTO
Thursday, March 1, 2007 2:40 p.m. ESTTennessee blogger Bill Hobbs picks up the story of Al Gore’s voracious household energy use, which we noted Tuesday:
The Tennessean reported that Gore buys “carbon offsets” to compensate for his home’s use of energy from carbon-based fuels. AsWikipediaexplains, a carbon offset “is a service that tries to reduce the net carbon emissions of individuals or organizations indirectly, through proxies who reduce their emissions and/or increase their absorption of greenhouse gases.” . . .
But how Gore buys his “carbon offsets,” as revealed by The Tennessean raises serious questions. According to the newspaper’s report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management:
Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe . . .
Gore is chairman of the firm and, presumably, draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management–he buys stocks. . . .
Meanwhile, Gore runs around the country and the world trumpeting “climate crisis” and blaming man’s use of carbon-based energy–burning thousands of gallons of jet fuel as he goes. His efforts have served to put climate change at the top of the national and even global agenda, driving up the value of the stocks and companies viewed as “green” or environmentally friendly. Companies like those his investment management firm invest his own and other peoples’ [sic] money in. (You can see a list of Generation Investment Management’s holdings here, courtesy of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.) …
Why is it left to think tanks and bloggers to investigate and expose all this? Why aren’t the mainstream media all over the story? Could it be . . . bias?
As usual, Mr. Taranto asks good questions.
Why didn’t our watchdog media research this? The company has been around since 2004.
Nobody noticed?
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46 Responses to “Gore Buys Carbon Offsets From Own Company”
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March 1st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I am selling 1 year leases on full grown trees for only $99/year.
Buy them while they are hot.
Mail your cash or MO to;
1sttofight Scam
PO Box 549
Scumbag, Ala. 66666
March 1st, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Do the “Carbon Offsets” go with the trees, or can they be stripped off and sold separate, like mineral rights?
March 1st, 2007 at 5:30 pm
These trees will be here as long as you keep sending the money.
Miss a payment and the Pouland will be fired up and….
March 1st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
I thought I was no longer capable of being surprised on this issue.
March 1st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I clicked on the Security & Exchange Commission’s website and for Mr. Gore’s company is a list of companies. Can anyone explain this to me?
Are these companies that hold stock in Allegore’s self indulgent company? Are they stock holders? Are they companies that Generation Investment has bought stock in?
Someone explain to me what it is all about. And why this company would be listed in England, instead of the U.S.
There is more to this than I am seeing.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:09 pm
algored is a god.
Please buy one of my trees.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:40 pm
1st: I will sponsor one of your trees, but only if you can guarantee that no pesky birds and mammals are living in it, reducing its [note the proper lack of apostrophe] net effective oxygen output. You can donate any roasted owl or squirrel stew you don’t eat yourself to the local homeless shelter.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:54 pm
For a no cost extra, you can get a free Polaroid of me whizzing on your tree mailed right to your house/apt./box for only $14.95[$5 covers the 6 pack] S&H charge.
BTW, It is suitable for framing.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:56 pm
haze gray ,
That will require a surcharge of $19.95 for ammo.
Cash or MO’s only.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:00 pm
This whole “Global Warming” religion is pure paganism.
Algore is an energy glutton and environmental fraud. He does not live with conservation ethics.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Of course he doesn’t–he just wants ~you~ to.
The essence of liberalism.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Ethics? I went back and reread the whole article. It’s talking about Al Gore, a Democrat. I don’t think there’s much chance of them bringing ethics into it.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:51 pm
“So I’m supposed to live like a raccoon while this tubby f*** drives a go-cart from room to room on his fabulous estate. These dirty g**-d*** hippies tell me how awful America is and how great everyone else is, and we should all roll around in the mud like these third world nightmares whose number one export is alien like diseases, meanwhile he’s flying back and forth to Caligula-like parties in Beverly Hills on his 20 million-dollar Gulfstream jet. I’m supposed to power my shower with a treadmill, but….Gore can’t even be bothered to sign up for ‘earth friendly’ power sources like wind energy, even though the utility companies that service his homes (he has three) in Tennessee and Washington D.C. offer it as an alternative. I think Ed Begley Jr. is a damn retard, but when he shakes his malnourished fingers at me and says we can all live ‘green’, I at least know that he’s speaking from experience, because he truly lives that life. Al Gore is not a scientist or an expert on weather and he’s sure as hell not an environmentalist. He might as well tell me he’s a Japanese super train that transforms into a tiger.”
http://www.wwtdd.com/post.phtml?pk=1958
The Gorebot. He will also give instructions on how to make breakfast bars out of raw sewage and lower your cholesterol.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:13 pm
He must have to buy a lot of “Carbon Offsets” to offset his enormous consumption of food. Do you know how much energy it takes to farm an acre of land, harvest, process, ship to market (in TRUCKS!), run the electricity and refrigeration of the store, etc? Man, he must owe more offsets than from his mansion based on the size of him.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Question;
If algored gets any bigger, will people try to push him back into the ocean?
March 1st, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Of course this is a scam and the irony is that it has been brought to our attention because of all the attention paid to Al Gore at the Academy Awards and an even greater irony is that it is going to cause Al Gore to lose another shot at being the Democrat candidate for President this year which I believe he had a good shot at up until this uproar. (although to be truthful I am one of the people who thinks his “fat” looks like bloat which could be caused by any number of drugs and or health problems and he would have to answer health questions were he to run [IMO]).
There is a Sydney based company called “Easy being Green” which says it will mitigate your cat’s flatulent contribution to global warming for $6. (No kidding-info from Bloomberg news.com) However, this is a global problem and there is such a thing as “emission credits” and “emission trading”. Google “China, India Smile as West Overpays for Climate” by Andy Mukherjee (another Bloomberg.com news). These are the same things as “carbon offsets” and “carbon footprints”. Remember “no controlling legal authority”? You got to give these guys credit, they sure know how to label things.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:10 pm
RD,
For only $99/year , I will put your name on a FULL GROWN TREE. ;)
March 1st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Sorry to be so anal retentive but please change that last sentence to ‘you’ve got to give these guys credit, they sure know how to label things” (and make a profit on them besides). I would have edited my post using that handy dandy e but this is the first that my post showed on my computerscreen. Sorry.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Brilliant! Paying to have your energy consumption reduced for you? At little inconvenience to your personal lifestyle? Algore is an absolute genius! I own two acres of trees, does this mean I can buy the Cadillac Esplanade I’ve been eyeing while still bursting forth in righteous lecturing when my neighbour refuses to recycle?
Oh, the possibilities. Every time I fire up the furnace, I can just wave my hand at the window and say, “My trees are conserving energy for me”.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:01 pm
1sttofight-sorry but I’d rather pay the $6 kitty flatulence fee even tho I don’t have a cat-money you know. On second thought if you’d move that tree to my front yard for -no that wouldn’t work either cuz you’d be only renting it to me. Just sign me no sucker.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Kilmeny-brilliant post.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Sounds somewhat like Credit Mobilier.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:04 am
Amusingly enough, what this is at its most basic is that Algore can pollute all he wants, because he’s got the money to offset it.
Isn’t this completely antithetical to liberals? Aren’t they always accusing “the rich” of getting away with all sorts of stuff because they’ve got money? Yet nobody’s supposed to condemn Algore for using as much electricity as two dozen families… because he pays out money for the priviledge…..
“The people, not the powerful,” my fuzzy redneck backside…..
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:15 am
I thought that Europe and others didn’t want to give credit for our forests since that CO2 is only sequestered until the wood is burned or rots back into the soil.
If the trees aren’t turned into houses, furniture, or something else that lasts, then the carbon dioxide is only kept out of the atmosphere for 75 years or however long those trees last.
Water (water vapor) makes up 80% of the greenhouse gasses, and a small part of the remaining 20% is man-made, so the effect of stopping all man-made carbon dioxide would be negligible.
Countries who lie and say the US pollutes so much are themselves guilty of polluting with toxic wastes and other things that are far worse than carbon dioxide.
Further, carbon dioxide helps plants. It’s not a poison at all, any more than water can be a poison.
Folks at the Ann Coulter chat website have plenty more information on this and other subjects you’ll be interested in.
http://chat.anncoulter.com/phpBB2/
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:56 am
RD, you can edit your comments within 30 minutes of when you post them if you click on the blue “e” to the right of the time stamp under your name.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:09 am
Did I mention that if you don’t buy into my
scam, con, schemeplan that I will be forced to turn you into the UNgestapo, SS, Secret PoliceSecurity Counsel?March 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 am
I wish I could think up some imaginary disaster that taps into liberals’ hatred of humanity and get rich(er) off it, like AlBore did. Population bomb, New Ice Age, heterosexual AIDS epidemic in America - I’ve seen these phony Doomsday scenarios come and go and everybody’s made money off them except me! Even 1st has his tree scam going…I gotta get busy. Let’s see. I know! Where I live there are lots of farms and lots of cows and everybody knows about all the methane cows generate, right? If you send me $5 per cow I promise I will walk up behind a cow with a lighter and burn off that gas at source. How about it, huh? Huh? Such a small price to save the planet and to pay for that eternity ring Mrs Artboy wants. Don’t send your money to 1st - send it to
ArtBoy Blue Flame Scam
c/o ArtBoy Foundation for Sustainable Crepulence
PO Box Beechwood 4-5789
Canterbury
England
Do it today. The cows are waiting.
P.S. whatever happened to Al and “Plus Size” Tipper’s campaign to make sure that musicians couldn’t say “bum bum” and cuckypants” on their records? Can’t say I’ve noticed that working out so good lately.
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:57 am
Isttofight - I want to join your tree scam, oops plan - I live on the edge of a wilderness preserve. Our backyard slopes down into it - lots of trees and I will be glad to join Ist in the new deal. Let’s all join together and start our own US tree rental anti-glowball warning scam, oops there I go again, plan.
I went to the idiotic carbon footprint calculator. We need to plant 0 (yes, people that is a big ZERO) trees. Because you see for three adults we consume almost nothing. (I’d love to know how they calculate the food etc, as we do grow a percentage of our own). . . and therein brings the biggest (ignored) part of the algored scam of global warming: Offsets.
While he is paying himself to ease his mind (NOT), it is really to provide an out, when those of us with functioning brain cells call him on his hypocracy. What he (and all the glowball warning scammers are not entering into the equation is the offsets (i.e. reality):
1) While America might just consume the ‘most’ energy (is that proportional or is that a straight figure?) It also has more natural spaces than most other ‘industrialized’ nations (38%). . .
2) Associated with that is those people (unlike Algored) who don’t have multibathrooms, multihomes or mansions - which (gasp) is a lot of people in the US not to even mention the World (try no multiroom homes, running water, or even electricity). A lot of the World are living that 19th century blissful paradise that Algoredco wants everyone not him to live in. Not to mention the millions here in good ole USA who live massively below the level of the Algoreds of the country. Which is (gasp again) an OFFSET.
Perhaps this all stems from Algored’s own guilt from his excessive lifestyle and he is so damn clueless (as are his enablers in DC, NYC, and Hollyweird) that the majority of the World do not live as they do. So he and all those over-users need to cut down and back and shut up about the rest of us. As he and his kind are the problem, not the rest of us.
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:09 am
The only things that are reduced by buying carbon credits are the guilt you feel and the amouint of cash you have. This is the equivilent of the the Popes in Martin Luther’s day selling indulgences.
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:44 am
I think everyone has it just a little bit wrong. Yes, carbon offsets are a sham. However, if you pay Al gore’s company for carbon offsets, Al Gore then turns around and buys more stock in the following companies:
He has a food company, a food distribution company, an agriculture company, and a major energy/media company. And, according to the listing, Gore already has hundreds of thousands of shares, representing a major voting stake in these companies. As such, he gets to help dictate how the company will operate.
Is buying carbon offsets just a way for the greens to infiltrate big business and force them to conform to liberal agendas and ideals? I think it is.
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:51 am
You’re right, BS. It’s a little more subtle and a little more evil than the characterizations portray it.
It’s not just like buying dispensations. It’s like buying and selling dispensations to get money to invest in the church so you can decide what is sin and who is a sinner.
It’s also weird because it is some vicious kind of self-righteous avarice.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
SG,
If its the case which you describe, a “re-investment scheme” for the church of the greens, wouldn’t this begin to get dangerously close to racketeering? If a company won’t go green on their own, Gore’s investments take a chunk of voting stock and pressure the company to go green?
And if he begins to put more pressure on the company with the threats of exposure in NBC news (part of general electric), and a company has to scale back due to less energy, Gore can just sell the company short and still make money.
Imagine if the Catholic Church was doing stuff like this. Or an organized Jewish cabal? People would be outraged. Or what if the Nation of Islam was doing something like this?
The sooner we get eco-greens classified as a religion, the safer we all will be. Government will no longer be allowed to create laws that kowtow to the wishes of these zealots.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:23 am
Good points, BS.
If that is the case, and it would seem it is, it is not unlike the way Jesse Jackson and PUSH use race to extort millions from various corporations.
I would bet that is the closest parallel.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:32 am
Who knew that Martians drive SUV’s? Apparently Mars is experiencing GW too.
http://news.nationalgeographic.....rming.html
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 am
Meanwhile, a complacent media, rather than hounding Gore over his financial conflicts of interest, continue to shill for this conman’s junk science.
When you add it all up, this is a flimflam of epic proportions:
*
First, Gore sets up a company that will invest in other companies that will benefit from global warming alarmism
*
Second, Gore gets some Hollywood types to fund and produce a movie designed to scare the c-c-carbon out of the population
*
Third, Gore travels the world promoting this movie, while pushing the view that a cataclysm is imminent if the world doesn’t immediately act
*
Fourth, an adoring media falls for the con hook, line, and sinker. Rather than debunking the flaws in the theories, the media promote every word of it while advancing the concept that Gore’s views represent those of an overwhelming majority of scientists
*
Fifth, scared governments and citizens across the globe invest in alternative energy programs driving up the shares of companies Gore’s group has already invested in
*
Sixth, Gore and his cronies make billions as they laugh all the way to the bank at the stupidity of their fellow citizens
America — what a country!
Al Gore, What a guy.
http://newsbusters.org/node/11149
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm
I wonder, besides the companies already listed, how many of the wind farms, bio-plants etc. Al is buying into with his “pay myself to fool the uninformed about how much of an energy pig I really am” as well? I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find him neck deep in the other companies so that the monies paid to them by him and any other moron buying into this scam goes to …….. you guessed it…..Mr. I Invented the Internet Himself. So he is leveraging those companies listed above to force feed his philosphy to them or else and meanwhile pocketing a pretty penny in the ever expanding “green industry” that his constant carping and doomsaying drives more and more to.
Give it up 1st…..Chubby and Tipper are going to bleed this dry before you can even get off the ground. All the while wagging their fingers at us like disapproving parents at a child that just won’t behave. You are trying to get in on a pyramid scheme that is already past the people who will make money and on to the people who will get screwed.
What a world.
VoR
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
This is on the same ethical level as Hungarian George Soros funding Move-on which attacks and knocks down Halliburton which our Hungarian Georgie Porgy is quietly buying up in large amounts (at bargain prices?) This wonderful country is getting so mucked up by these greedy, anything goes so long as I come out on top bottom feeders.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Facts you should know
“Used to be an ape and loved to eat bananas. In fact, his original name was Alberto Gorilla but he decided to change it after too much controversy, and an infamous groping incident. After being defeated by famous monkey gunslinger George W. Bush in a gun battle in Apeland’s capital, Florida, Al Gore slunk off to grow a beard and join the Taliban, and later became their leader. He is rumoured to be the infamous 20th hijacker in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center as a means of getting back at his nemesis. Unfortunately, Mr. Gore missed his airplane, as the canoe he was paddling to the airport wouldn’t go anywhere. It was later found that this was because he was paddling backwards. Al Gore now resides at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) where he sometimes huffs kittens and smokes pot while listening to his favorite band, Bright Red Paper, to pass the time.”
March 3rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
I keep hearing the GW people throwing out how tons and tons of C)2 will destroy the planet. Has anyone ever considered just how huge the earth’s atmosphere is and how much it weighs?
Consider that every square inch of the earths surface has 15 lbs atmosphere above it and the earth is approx 25,000 miles in circumference.
The area of the Earth in square miles is 197 million.
There are (12 x 5280)2 square inches in one square mile.
This equals 12 x 12 x 5280 x 5280 or 4.01 billion square inches.
Multipy the two - 1.97 x 108 x 4.01 x 109 = 7.9 x 1017 square inches on the entire surface of the Earth.
So that means the earths atmosphere weighs approx. 1085 X10 to the 17th power lbs.
Yet algored and his phony cronies think a few tons of CO2 are going to matter.
What buffoons.
March 3rd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I’ve got one for you, SJ:
Manbearpig
“Al Gore’s arch nemesis is the manbearpig, who sprung from Al Gore’s head while Gore was suffering a splitting headache, ironically, after having been declared the loser in the 2000 election. Although shallow-minded reactionary critics call manbearpig imaginary, Al Gore continues his crusade to defeat this evil creature. No confirmed reported sightings exist for manbearpig, but Al Gore describes the beast as ‘one-half man, one-half bear, and one-half pig,’ and declares that a ‘consensus’ of math scientists agree with this description. Among the more dastardly deeds, Al Gore claims that manbearpig has been visiting Africa at night and eating snow off the top of Mount Kilamanjaro. This ferocious thirst forever unquenched, manbearpig is also believed to visit Antarctica and eat the edges off of ice shelfs. Worst of all, Al Gore warns that once manbearpig has eaten his fill of ice, he will melt the ice with his tremendous gastrointestinal pressure and spew the water back on to populated cities along the United States Shoreline, namely, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. ‘Anyone who doubts the scientific consensus on this topic is a sell-out,’ reminds Al Gore.”
Many thanks, South Park.
Please, please, you must see the whole article. You will not be disappointed: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Sorry Professor, but the real reason for GW is Heather at ideepthroat.com
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:28 pm
You’re a baaaad man, 1st. More Gore?!! “Gore shot President Reagan and Jim Brady to raise awareness about gun control. He threw the weapon at an innocent bystander named Hinkley, pointed to Hinkley, and said, ‘He did it!’ to the Secret Service. Naturally, he was believed because he was already a Congressman, having represented Tennessee’s 4th District since 1976, and Congressmen never lie.”
“Gore once dated Rosie O’Donnell, and Rosie claims that experience lead her to become a lesbian.”
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Rosie became a lesbian because , come on , no matter how horny a man is, or how much alcohol is involved, he is not going to date her, even for a simple drive-by booty call.
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
That reminds me of a quote attributed to John McCain: “Why is Hillary Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
STOP CO2 Emissions NOW!!!! Everyone hold their breath. Thank you. END TRANSMISSION
September 12th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Gore’s full of hot air.
Let’s hope the hot air is environmentally friendly!!