NYT/AP: Bill Clinton Debuts $1B Renewable-Energy Fund

[DeepModem Mom]

Clinton Debuts $1B Renewable - Energy Fund
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 22, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Former President Clinton announced the launch of an investment fund expected to raise more than $1 billion for renewable energy on Friday, the final day of his global issues conference.

The Green Fund would focus on reducing dependence on fossil fuels, creating jobs, lessening pollution and helping to reduce global warming, all while making a profit, Clinton said.

The announcement at the Global Initiative Conference came a day after British business mogul Richard Branson pledged $3 billion to battle global warming,

''The earth is warming at an alarming rate, we are running out of fossil fuels, and it is long past time for us to take action to correct these problems,'' Clinton said in a statement.

The fund's launch was announced by Clinton, former World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, Yucaipa Companies founder Ron Burkle and business leader and philanthropist Steve Bing. Wolfensohn will serve as the fund's managing director....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Clinton-Global-Initiative.html

[amitten]

1. Wow...these guys are really serious.

But do you think it's already too late?

[Stella_Artois]

3. The environment is seen as left wing issue

Until that changes, expect no interest from around 50% of the population.

[theophilus]

5. I believe it IS changing. It will be viewed as "life and death" sooner

than you think.....to everyone.

[theophilus]

4. It probably is too late for some species and ecosystems, but

I think we can avert a total catastrophe. The Earth seems to be amazingly resilient and able to heal if we will give it a chance. Case in point: in areas where mercury pollution has been cut back or stopped the environment is responding in five or six years with improvement. The scientists had predicted fifty years before an improvement would be noted. I think the Ozone hole reduction is a positive sign, too.

We just need to ALL be serious about quitting petroleum as fuel and stopping as much CO2 as we possibly can. It might take some "drastic" measures like putting sulfur in the high atmosphere mimicking a huge volcanic event. Who knows? The important thing is that we take an FDR approach and start trying everything we think will work....based on our best science. We MUST stop putting off action! This needs to be the end of burning petroleum or else. But yes, I believe there is still time to save our planet's present ecosystem.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Yawn, when's my next vacation start?" - Commander AWOL

Bush goes AWOL once again on one of the major issues facing the USA. He'd rather let other's do the work. He and his republicon oil cronies have to count up their massive oil profits.

[BlueJackal]

6. A Drop of Piss in the Big Bucket

It's very well-intentioned but sadly it will do nothing to help us out. Ethanol, the main and most marketable of all the biofuels, is so expensive that billions in taxpayer funds have to be actually paid to farmers and ethanol producers to keep the fuel marketable and affordable because otherwise it's simply too expensive.
The falacy that's misleading to so many environmentalists and people like myself who are very concerned about our dependency on oil is that there is no simple pill to take to "cure" the epidemic. The only cure is to reduce demand - simply economics. Ethanol is touted by corporations like Cargill and Midwestern congressmen and senators and propped up by their pork ethanol bills that really just give people false hopes on the future. It costs more in gasoline to make ethanol than it does for ethanol to save gasoline per gallon.
Ethanol is subsidized by billions in my tax money that could be far better spent on health-care or increased infrastructure somewhere in my country. We need to stop fooling ourselves. There is no cure to oil. The "oil death" will come in about 60 years and there's nothing to stop it save converting our economy to wind, solar, and nuclear because there are no other practical "clean" ways to fund our way of life.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. Imagine if we spent the PNACers' $100's of billions from their War-Machine

.
.
.

on renewable energy sources?

Just a silly Canuk thot . .

I know . . .

(sigh)