In 2007, Al Gore won an Oscar, an Emmy and the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign to alert the world to the threat of global warming. But a closer look reveals that Gores effort to mobilize public support for a greener environment includes giving financial advice to venture capitalists. By putting pressure on politicians to change laws, Gore believes they can turn their own pockets and his'a deeper shade of green. In the August 2008 edition of Foundation Watch, author Fred Lucas discloses the extent of Gores emerging financial empire and suggests how it benefits from his passionate warning about the ?climate crisis.? When the former vice president left office, Gore was worth an estimated $2 million. Today, Gore has a fortune estimated at over $100 million. Lucas explains that Gores wealth is tied to his personal investments in 'green tech' enterprises. Gore is a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and co-founder of the London-based firm Generation Investment Management (GIM).

Lucas points out that Gores investments will become profitable only when Washington politicians pass sweeping federal legislation to reduce carbon emissions by subsidizing a market for alternative fuels. The 'cap-and-trade' bill sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (Independent D-Conn.) and John Warner (R-VA.) is a prototype for this legislation. It would allow the government to cap the amount of carbon dioxide a company can emit. If a company exceeds its limit, it can then buy ?credits? and trade them to companies that pollute less. Shareholders investing in companies able to sell their carbon credits should profit if a cap-and-trade bill becomes law. The Heritage Foundation estimates that annual job losses could exceed 500,000 before 2030 and the average household would pay an additional $467 per year for electricity or natural gas if a cap-and-trade bill passes.

By contrast, firms like Generation Investment Management (GIM) should prosper. Gore and his GIM co-founder David Blood, a former official at Goldman Sachs, also are proponents of 'carbon offsets' another pseudo-market concept. According to this proposal, individuals, businesses, and institutions can mitigate their own carbon emissions by buying 'offsets' on a market exchange like newly-created Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). They pay a levy that is supposed to fund renewable energy sources. Gore was recently embarrassed over his advocacy for carbon offsets when it was revealed that his own Tennessee mansion used about 221,000 kilowatt hours of power, more than 20 times the national average.