Monday, January 21, 2013

Climate Hawk Senator John Kerry and His Green Inside Deals

UPDATED January 26, 2012 at bottom: Senator Kerry to divest holdings in "green" 90 days after confirmed? 

Last summer, I began a collaboration with Marita Noon, columnist at Townhall.com, to expose the entire Green Corruption scandal –– years of research I had gathered since the February 13, 2009 passing of the Recovery Act, also known the Stimulus Bill, of which $80 billion was earmarked for green investments (some reports show much more) . In 2011, the original expenditure estimate of $787 billion was increased to $840 billion to be in line with the President's 2012 budget and with scoring changes made by the Congressional Budget Office since the enactment of the Recovery Act.

Also known as H.R.1: Economic stimulus bill, it should be noted that according to OpenSecrets.org, the 2009-Recovery Act has been the top lobbied piece of legislation since 2005 with over 2,019 "clients."

Last May the Washington Free Beacon exposed Senator John Kerry, whom President Obama recently nominated as Secretary of State to replace Hillary Clinton, and his part in this green-energy scheme. Kerry, the co-author of cap-and-trade legislation, more specifically the 2010 American Power Act, is another 2009-Recovery Act green-energy crafter, along with John Doerr and five others that I found, which have cashed in big time from the stimulus funds.

“The Lucky Seven Stimulus Authors," which I had alluded to in May 2012, are those that helped craft the 2009-Recovery Act and have subsequently financially benefited, of which I have already covered General Electric, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, and I have given mention to billionaire George Soros, as well as the left-wing organization the Apollo Alliance –– with TJ Glautheir, McBee Strategic Consulting, and Senator John Kerry topping off my list. Soon to be released.


Below is Marita' column on Senator Kerry's role –– with corrections and extra information marked in red.


Inside Deals Mar John Kerry for State

Senator Kerry’s Secretary of State hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will take place on Thursday, January 24. Kerry should receive some tough questions regarding his green energy investments and his ability to profit, as Secretary of State, from his support of a climate change agenda.
The STOCK Act
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the STOCK Act. Kerry and many fellow Senate Members were co-sponsors of the bill. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act—known as the STOCK Act—prohibits members and employees of Congress from using “any nonpublic information derived from the individual's position… or gained from performance of the individual's duties, for personal benefit.” The bill also applies to all employees in the Executive and Judicial branches of the federal government.
The STOCK Act passed quickly and with wide bipartisan support.
Climate Change
Kerry has been an ardent believer in Climate Change as a man-made crisis. In August of 2009, he penned an op-ed that compared the threat of climate change to the 9-11 attacks. In it Kerry wrote: “Make no mistake: catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and—yes—even to American national security. … Unfortunately, not everyone in Washington appreciates the stakes. It's tragic that we live at a time when if one were to dismiss the threat of terrorism, you'd be sent home in the next election. But there are no similar political consequences if you dismiss the science or the threat of climate change.”
On September 30, 2009, Kerry and Senator Barbara Boxer introduced the Senate version of a cap-and-trade bill: the 821-page Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act—also known as the Kerry-Boxer Bill. At the time, he said, about the bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and therefore slowing global warming: “Ultimately, this bill is about keeping Americans safe.”
The Sierra Club, long the standard bearer for the environmental community, responded to the Kerry-Boxer bill this way: “Millions of jobs could be created here if only the U.S. were to invest wisely in clean energy, innovation and efficiency. This bill can build our clean energy economy—and not let polluters get away with their dirty business-as-usual ways. Global warming is a very real threat to our national security. As catastrophic weather events increase over time, our world will see more climate refugees—masses of people forced to move, causing clashes over borders and dwindling resources like food, fuel and water. A strong clean energy bill is essential to protecting our security.”
The Kerry-Boxer Bill didn’t pass. But that hasn’t slowed Kerry’s crusade against global warming.
In 2011, in response to the President’s glaring omission of any climate change priorities in his State of the Union Address, Kerry gave him a pass when he said: “That’s alright. There’s a lot of work that has to be done to revalidate the science and the facts with respect to that. It would cloud the reality that we’re trying to deal with respect to energy. So I’m very sympathetic. I understand that completely. That is not where the country is. That’s not where the issue is right now. It has to be brought back there. And it will be, but that’s a different track on a different issue.”
It now appears that Kerry sees the Secretary of State position as the “track” to bring it back. The Los Angeles Times reports that as Secretary of State, Kerry will “push the issue to center stage as a slow-motion crisis in need of a global solution.”
Climate hawks are practically giddy over Kerry’s nomination. For example, writing for the National Journal, Coral Davenport says that as Secretary of State he will “likely raise climate change to a top-tier priority.” In Mother Jones Magazine, Washington Bureau reporter Kate Sheppard wrote: “Having Kerry at the helm at State would be very good news.” In Climate Progress, Joe Romm says he believes Kerry’s nomination is “the first serious indication Obama will focus on climate change in his second term.” And, in Grist.org, Lisa Hymas refers to Kerry as “the most ardent climate hawk ever to hold the office.”
The enthusiasm of the green groups is apropos. Kerry would be “the most ardent climate hawk ever to hold the office.” Along with his wife Teresa, Kerry wrote the book This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future.

The 2009 Stimulus Bill
Next, Kerry played a part in crafting President Obama’s 2009 Stimulus Bill—more specifically, as hiswebsite touts, he worked on the portions that offered federal support for green energy projects: he “played a key role in securing energy tax provision increases to include a long term extension of provisions that provide tax incentives for the production of renewable energy and tax credits for conservations.”
It is surprising that Kerry brags about his involvement in the Stimulus Bill, given American’s attitude toward it. His “efforts” have cost America’s taxpayers billions on foolhardy projects that lined the pockets of Democratic lawmakers and wealthy donors before going bankrupt.
Big-ticket Obama donor,” John Doerr –– a member of the president's Job  Council –– also was part of shaping what went into the 2009 Stimulus Bill. Doerr is an investment partner at the Venture Capital firm Kliener Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Doerr jumped on the Climate Change bandwagon in 2005 and credits Al Gore for his “environmental awakening”— though his conversion may have been more financial than spiritual as he saw green-energy as the “mother of all markets” and “the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”  
Doer joined KPCB in 1980, self-proclaimed champions "of greentech investing since 1999," where they have "been investing in greentech and advocating policy innovations to address the climate crisis since 2002." In 2006, Doerr started his first green-tech investment fund –– "The $100 million initiative broadens Kleiner Perkins' push into clean tech. For the past five years, the firm has invested in a handful of businesses in the area, including solar technology company Miasole and battery technology company Lilliputian," reported CNET News in 2006. 
Kleiner Perkins' "Greenttech portfolio" is vast and impressive, yet two investment portfolios that specifically fund green energy project, which are extremely relevant to this story were both launched in 2008. They include the Green Growth Fund to invest $500 million in growth-stage companies, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers XIII, a $700 million fund to invest in greentech, information technology, and life sciences ventures. 
Though the KPCB funds may seem irrelevant to Kerry’s expected confirmation, they play an important role.
More than fifty percent of these companies [at least 36 of the 66 listed as of December 2012within Kleiner Perkin's greentech portfolio have benefitted from loans, grants, and special tax breaks through the 2009 Stimulus Bill, in which both Kerry and Doerr participated.
Kerry is the wealthiest member of the Senate. He has vast wealth, myriad investments, and an impressive record that considerably beats the average. Obviously, he knows how to spot a good investment opportunity. Yet, he did not invest in either of the KPCB funds at their inception. Kerry waited a month after the stimulus bill was passed — which directed billions of taxpayer dollars to KPCB funded projects. According to his investment records, he invested in both of Doerr’s greentech funds—Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers XIII and the KPCB Green Growth Fund—on March 31, 2009. He’s invested in the funds many times each year in the subsequent years. 
In 2011, Kerry added KPCB Digital Growth Fund LLC as wells as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers XIV to his long list of investment transactions. "Judging by the name" CNN Money writer, Dan Primack "assumes that KPCB Digital Growth Fund refers to "later-stage IT investments," and the KPCB XIV is apparently a new general fund set up sometime in October 2010, where "half [is] dedicated to IT investing while the rest balanced between greentech and life sciences."

Wonder what 2012 looks like. 



Despite a green-energy push from the White House, these funds haven’t “delivered the returns expected on the timeline expected for most venture capitalists.” In fact, Doerr admitted in a November 2009 speech that the government funding saved them: “If we’d been able to foresee the crash of the market, we wouldn’t probably have launched a green initiative, because these ventures really need capital. The only way in which we were lucky, I think, is that the government stepped in, particularly the Department of Energy. Led by this great administration that put in place these loan guarantees.”
Most of us have heard the adage: “put your money where your mouth is.” It is great to see a person investing in issues in which he or she is a strong believer—as Kerry’s investment history shows. However, this has always been immoral for members of Congress and, thanks to the STOCK Act, it is now illegal.
We have every reason to believe that, as Secretary of State, Kerry will push forward a clean energy agenda, one that moves climate change to center stage; a top-tier priority—and this will financially benefit his investments and those of his family and friends. With the Kyoto Treaty dead and more andmore countries abandoning their CO2 targets, these greentech funds seem doomed without another form of government intervention and that could come in the from of Kerry’s manipulation of climate change into a national security issue.
Following the passage of the fiscal cliff deal, green energy stocks rallied—not because of market demand (in fact, in spite of it), but because the deal promised continued government funding. In much the same way, if global warming falls off the radar—as it is currently doing due to a lack of actual warming and the global economic crisis—these greentech investments will die without a government savior such as the Senator.
Wouldn’t it be great, if Ranking Member Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), or perhaps Committee Member Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), would question Kerry on his green energy investments? The closing question could be: “If you are confirmed as the Secretary of State, Senator Kerry, can you assure me, and the American people whose tax dollars have already been transferred to you through your investments, that you will not make climate change a national security issue as your record, to date, indicates you will?”
Pay attention. Maybe he’ll really have to answer a similar line of questioning on Thursday.
Author’s note: Thanks to Christine Lakatos for her extensive research on the green-energy crony-corruption scandal and specifically KCPB’s greentech investment, backstory, and much more. 




We need Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn on the case..

In April 2009 when Gore testified in a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he was confronted by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) about his financial interests in, at that time, to the pending cap-and-trade legislation. What’s funny about this interchange is that Blackburn, citing an October article by the New York Times Magazineabout Kleiner Perkins, asked Gore, "Are you aware of that company?" Gore, laughingly said, “Well, yes, I’m a partner in Kleiner Perkins.” Blackburn then noted that “they [Kleiner Perkins] had invested about a billion dollars in forty companies that are going to benefit from cap-and-trade legislation,” and she asked, “Is the legislation that we are discussing here today; is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?” Blackburn also asked, "Are you willing to divest yourself from any profit?"

Gore sidestepped the questions and took a somewhat defensive posture, claming that "every penny" that he has made from "green" –– his movie, book and investments in renewable energy –– goes to his non-profit organization, "the Alliance for Climate Protection to spread awareness."


Maybe Kerry will be asked the same questions on Thursday...

"For years, Kerry has invested millions in a number of green energy companies that have benefitted from the president’s efforts to aggressively subsidize the industry with taxpayer dollars," writes the Washington Free Beacon.

Kerry seems to average about twelve percent of his published assets  in "energy & natural resources," and with a quick glance, besides Kleiner Perkins, we find that there are numerous large corporations that are tied to a massive amount of renewable energy funds from the 2009 Stimulus; like BP, Bank of America, Citigroup, Exelon Corp, General Electric, Google, and Southern Co.

However, we would have to analyze the timing on these transactions and dig further to make any future accusations. Yet in the case of Exelon Corp, which became a new transaction in 2010 for Senator Kerry, we know that they received a $646 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan in 2011 to build a solar facility in California, which created only 20 permanent jobs.

Exelon is part of the "$3 Billion First Solar Swindle," which I had written about last summer and has its own unique twist.

Besides Exelon making it on that "top Obama contributors list," in August of 2011, they were the recipient of a $656 million loan for the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, one of the non-investment grade loans listed in the 2012 House investigation.

During Obama’s run for the presidency, Exelon’s employees continued to give, contributing at least $200,000 during Obama’s 2008 campaign, meanwhile Exelon board member John Rogers Jr. was a top Obama bundler, hauling in at least $500,000. And back in July 2011, Frank Clark then CEO of the ComEd unit (their chief state lobbyist) had raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for President Obama and the DNC for 2012, marking Mr. Clark as an Obama bundler for both campaigns.

However there is an even more complex Obama, Exelon story to share that includes Clark, Exelon CEO John Rowe as well as other high-profiled Democrats –– Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel and chief political strategist, David Axelrod –– uh, and more stimulus money. But I digress...

Clean energy dirt is not the only concern for this Senator, soon to be our Secretary of State. The Washington Free Beacon reminds us, "Kerry is one of several lawmakers prominently featured in Throw Them All Out, Peter Schweizer’s landmark book on how elected politicians exploit their privileged positions to enhance their personal wealth." "The Massachusetts Senator’s most dubious trading activity coincided with two major political events — the financial crisis of late 2008 and the passage of President Obama’s controversial healthcare overhaul in March 2010." 

Let's not forget Climate Hawk Kerry in his own words –– “Global climate change is a security issue on a planetary scale,” Kerry told Grist in 2007. And in a speech on the Senate floor this past June, he said, “Climate change is one of two or three of the most serious threats our country now faces, if not the most serious..."

When confirmed as Secretary of State, thrusting more power in his corner –– along with a president that's dead set on pushing a fierce and radical climate change agenda and funding green energy with taxpayer money, which is mainly a vehicle for corporate welfare –– what will Kerry do to save our planet, while fattening his (family and friends) pocket book?



UPDATED January 26, 2013: 

According to a January 24, 2013 article by Fox News , "Kerry says tackling debt a must for sake of American influence abroad..." 

In the past, Kerry has played a major role on climate change legislation and has warned of the environmental dangers. 
In advance of his hearing, Kerry said he plans to divest holdings in dozens of companies in his family's vast financial portfolio to avoid conflicts of interest if he is confirmed
He notified the State Department earlier this month that within 90 days of his confirmation he would move to sell off holdings in three trusts benefiting him and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. In the Jan. 8 letter to the department's Office of the Legal Adviser, Kerry said he would not take part in any decisions that could affect the companies he has holdings in until those investments are sold off. 
Kerry is the wealthiest man in the Senate, worth more than $184 million, according to a 2011 Senate disclosure.

Well, OK but his "financial friends" will still benefit, but in 90 days, we'll be checking Senator Kerry!

Signing off, THE Green Corruption blogger,
One Woman, One Mission, One Green Corruption Piece of the Scandal at a time...


4 comments:


  1. Excellent story. I want readers to know that besides the cover-up of millions of bird deaths by the wind industry, which in my opinion has been criminal, there is something else going on that is just as sinister.

    The industry has been sitting on a bird safe wind turbine design that produces even more energy. They have kept their mouths shut about it so they could keep on selling their eagle killing turbines to the world. It is also my impression that with this design, Infasound will be greatly reduced.

    So why has nobody heard about any of this? Here is what appears to be the industry’s reasoning. This planned obsolescence keeps the profits rolling in and stimulates demand by encouraging purchasers to buy (turbine clunkers) sooner if they still want a functioning product. In this case it is the ignorant saps or communities that are still putting up bird killing projects with a 25 year life span. This postponement is why we still have Altamont’s ongoing eagle massacre still going on 28 years after it started.

    What I have said is true and I can prove it. So are wind turbines really about climate change or the ruthless pursuit of profits? It would seem reasonable that anyone interested in climate change would want turbine designs in production that produce the greatest benefit to the world. Especially if there is a new design with far fewer negative impacts. In addition if we are in a crisis, taxpayers should also not have to waste valuable time and money on clunkers that produce less energy.

    And while we are on the topic of planned obsolescence, climate change and clunkers, I will remind everyone that we have seen all this before. How long did it take after the 1970′s gas crisis to get reasonable gas mileage standards set for cars? We still do not have them.

    As far as I am concerned, all of this is like the tobacco industry not putting out a cancer free cigarette if they had developed one or a drug company that had found a cure for cancer, but kept it quite for financial reasons instead of saving lives.

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  2. If the author wishes to contact me I have can provide even more information about wind industry tax credits.

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  3. When the bird and bat populations are decimated the climate change folks will blame "warming" instead of facing up to reality. There is nothing they cannot spin, including the downward trend in bird/raptor deaths at Altamont Pass. The wind industry would have us believe this is due to new turbine design, but I fail to see how a larger turbine with a greater rotor sweep (that turns faster than the old style but looks slower because of size) is an improvement. Of course the number of raptor fatalities is going down! When you have wiped out entire populations of birds you have no more to kill.

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  4. The green energy movement is nothing more than a vehicle to further destroy the American economy while shifting billions of dollars into the pockets of the 1%. The people believe the agenda because the lie is so big as to make not-believing it seem ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete