California has avoided much of the devastating fracking mess happening around the country. But that may not last long.
Tom Steyer, the billionaire CNN called ‘California’s Hedge Fund King’ is spending nearly $22 million dollars to influence your vote and buy the election. But this billionaire bank-rolling the “Yes on Prop 39” campaign has a lot to gain in getting fracking subsidies. He bills himself as the green billionaire trying to pass green energy legislation, but something doesn’t seem quite right with this guy who supposedly LOVES the environment.
For one his company Farallon stands to make millions from natural gas and government policies that increase consumption of natural gas. Farallon owns nearly $14 million worth of shares of Westport Innovations, the self-described ”global leader in natural gas engines.” The Westport Carbon Project (WCP), according to its website, ”was established to monetize the carbon emission reductions associated with the Westport HD engine, the Cummins Westport ISL G and other natural gas engines developed with our OEM partners. The WCP enables customers to earn annual carbon rebate cheques for the natural gas vehicles in their fleet as of January 1, 2010.”
For another, Steyer owns millions of dollars worth of shares in Big Oil companies such as BP — sound like he cares about the environment?
Steyer was a protege of Robert Rubin — sound familiar — Rubin is the guy that fought hard for deregulation in the 90s so that derivatives could saturate financial markets and financial types like Steyer could make billions with you holding all the risk.
In fact, Steyer worked in risk arbitrage at Goldman Sachs (we all know how that ended up) and as a financial analyst in Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions department. Remember Matt Taibbi’s article on GS:” The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
And guess what? “Green energy” smells like money!
Steyer has been a member of the controversial Hamilton Project since 2005 — a project founded by Robert Rubin.
If you need any other reason to think Steyer and Farallon may be a bit shady, he also operates a number of funds based in the Cayman Islands.
So his diatribe on natural gas as the future of “clean energy” at the DNC smells fishy to say the least.
Steyer’s speech:
“Last week in Tampa, you didn’t hear any plans that would create jobs now or a long-term plan for energy security. You also didn’t hear very many facts. So here are a few: America’s dependence on foreign oil is the lowest in two decades. Even as we’ve tightened our belts elsewhere, America has made record investments in clean energy technologies from wind to solar to biofuels. We’re modernizing our electrical grid to harness more renewable power sources. We’re doubling fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. And domestic production of natural gas is at an all-time high—natural gas, which, if developed safely and responsibly, could help bridge our energy present to our energy future.”
There is NO such thing as “safely developed natural gas”, no such thing as “clean coal” and no such thing as “safe offshore drilling” so right there this guy is a liar.
Wow, George Orwell would be rolling in his grave!!! This guy preaches green energy and uses that moniker to get giant subsidies for fracking. We have all seen the devastating consequences of natural gas fracking to water supplies and eco-systems, yet our tax dollars will be used to subsidize this technology as a green energy alternative.
What really scares me is that Steyer has somehow managed to convince the competition to drop their ads (no doubt by paying them off in one of many ways to legally pay someone for political action or inaction).
So we don’t even have special interests to oppose this in an ad campaign. In fact the campaign has already declared victory.
Who determines what a “green energy project” is?
Here is the language directly from the Prop.
“Dedicate $550 million annually for five years from the initiative’s anticipated increase in revenue in order to fund projects that “create energy efficiency and clean energy jobs” in California.”
Who decides what those projects are? Steyer thinks Natural Gas is “clean energy” per his political speeches. Creating “energy efficiency” doesn’t necessarily mean protecting the environment. It reminds me of all of the subsidies Obama has been giving to companies who produce poly-vinyl chloride windows and siding as “green solutions”–solutions that are carcinogenic and so toxic entire towns in Louisiana have been wiped out. The massive use of PVCs which make buildings energy efficient come at an enormous cost to the environment. PVCs are heavily subsidized as a”green solution” but actually hurt the environment and public health. So the language of this Proposition is utterly meaningless.
Come on people! Do you really believe this is some rogue benevolent billionaire that has a passion for the environment? Haven’t we learned that these financial parasites are chameleons and they become whatever they need to become to game the markets for their own personal benefit? The guy is one of the richest men in the country. He hides his lobbying under the moniker of philanthropy.
His 22 million dollar investment in Prop 39 is just that an investment that he knows will pay big! He already managed to pass CA Cap and Trade which set itself up as an anonymous Delaware LLc to evade open government laws.
If he really cares about the environment then why all the secrecy? Why the anonymous shell corp WCI for Cap and Trade? Why the Cayman Island Funds? Would ANYONE who cares about the environment invest in BP after what they did to the Gulf?
The guy is a class A fraud with a billion dollars to create smoke and mirrors to make you think he is a selfless philanthropist looking out for the greater good.
California has been lucky, evading much of the fracking mess that is poisoning the east coast but that is all about to change — ironically under “green energy” branding.
God help us if Prop 39 passes in November.
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