Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Richard Branson is so shocked by President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Paris, he’s putting his own money into renewables R&D. My question – isn’t this how Capitalism is supposed to work?
Richard Branson: Business leaders are ‘baffled’ by Trump on climate change
[British] billionaire Richard Branson said business leaders were left dumbfounded by President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement. But if there’s a silver lining, it’s that companies are now even more driven to invest in clean energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“Whether it’s GE, or whether it’s the big oil companies… I haven’t come across one business person who doesn’t want to get out there and do everything they can to try to compensate for the [Trump] administration’s very strange stance,” Branson said on a Wednesday call with reporters.
“A lot of people in the world are baffled by the American administration’s comments,” the Virgin Group CEO said.
…
Read more: http://mashable.com/2017/06/21/richard-branson-business-leaders-trump-paris-agreement/
Does anyone need more evidence that President Trump’s decision to take government out of the energy business was a stroke of genius?
Before President Trump tore up the agreement, Branson and his friends were content to sit back and let US taxpayers take all the risks and pay all the bills.
Since President Trump tore up the Paris Agreement, Branson and his friends suddenly feel compelled to put their own money and time into funding high risk green energy R&D. Meanwhile, US tax money which would have likely been wasted on renewables can now be spent on stuff taxpayers actually care about, like retiring public debt, improving public healthcare or fixing broken US infrastructure.
Branson could raise the cash by selling his airline.
Of course, if anyone is unhappy their tax money is no longer being spent on green R&D, they are free to use their own cash to join Branson’s crusade to save the world. But people are also now free not to contribute to green R&D. Everyone gets to choose what happens to their own money.
Talk about win / win.
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The “green” economy is a contemporary version of fascism. Lots of people making lots of money pried out of the pockets of average citizens by the brute force of the state.
A la Elon Musk, Branson’s ‘investments’ are nothing more than an attempt to steal billions in taxpayer subsidies.
Quite a scam.
Wally, you beat me to this. They are both Con-men. Musk should be forced to pay back all the subsidy money given to Tesla in their “Fast Charge” scam. When will people wake up and realize they are not innovators, they are hogs at the trough of government money.
Dave,
Probably a while after Musk loses his grip on the media. Right now, they are his lapdogs, eagerly panting for the next story of his genius solutions to copy & paste for public consumption.
I’m getting sick of reading how he will save us all, real soon now! Good for his share price, though…
au contraire, Elon Musk is one of the greatest innovaters evah! He’s constantly coming up with new ways to jack fast cash out of all of us, while at the same time forcing us to thank him for the privilege!
I was going to say the same thing. The “business leaders” are really just beneficiaries of fascism that allows them to remain wealthy and in power. Of course, they don’t realize what they are giving up, and apparently don’t care what the rest of society is giving up as well.
Who wants to contribute to renewable infrastructure anyway. If renewables were obviously more saleable than other energy – i.e. less expensive on all counts – their shares would be snapped up before one could say “Richard Branson”.
Canada Revenue Agency / List of Charities
Virgin Unite Canada Inc
Registered: Toronto, ON, 2007-05-01
Registration No. 841790728 RR 0001
Lists three directors/trustees.
Information: Search at.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/listings/menu-eng.html
Canada Revenue Agency/List of Charities
Search:
Climate Reality Project Canada
Effective date: 2007-09-26
Registration No. 831268354RR0001
Montreal, Quebec
Lists 11 directors/trustees
Follow the links for information.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/lstngs/menu-eng.html
Also use this website address for: Virgin Unite Canada Inc
Barbara,
Thank you for your comment.
These agencies which you mention and the many other like them simply raise money from
1. simple people
2. large funds which advocate that they wish to improve the world but on closer scrutiny have their own private agenda.
I have a post on my blog which features the Rockefeller Bros. who most likely fund the sites you mention and many others like them.
It is my considered opinion that the Rockefellers and many other people in their league, do not have the welfare of normal people like you and me at heart.
https://thedemiseofchristchurch.com/2015/08/15/the-rockefellers-who-they-fund-from-their-web-site/
The Rockefeller Bros website is convenient as they have a search engine where you may search their recipients.
Although it is possible that your agencies are funded directly via Rockefeller money it is more likely that they are funded by someone who the Rockefellers fund.
As many of these agencies have a page where they list their funders, (usually well hidden on their site though), you may check, as I have in a many cases, whether some of their funders are funded by the Rockefeller Bros. Sometimes you may need to search several tiers up each funding tree.
For the little people who contribute their dimes and nickels to sites which fund so called renewables, their money is in vain and lost and is an involuntary contribution to Rockefellers and their associates in their investments to change the world without asking you or me.
In my comment above I am talking about normal level headed investors.
Cheers
Roger
‘The story of the Carbon War Room’, Oct.28, 2016
Founded 2009 and merged with the Rocky Mountain Institute in 2014.
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/story-carbon-war-room
Barbara,
“and many other people in their league, do not have the welfare of normal people like you and me at heart.”
I suspect Richard Branson may well be one of those “other people”.
Cheers
Roger
Reuters, April 25, 2007
Branson tells Canada to “Flick Off”, save energy
“The program launched in Canada, but Branson, head of the Virgin Group of music, telephone, and airline businesses, said he hoped it would eventually go global.”
“Flick Off” was an environmental challenge to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-branson-idUSN2535299620070425
“Flick Off” was launched in Toronto, Canada, April 25, 2007.
More information on line.
Barbara, And your point is?
The guy with fleets of aircraft and a private low-lying island resort is baffled. Next story
Branson should lead the pack by converting his planes to run on Renewable Energy.
He tried and found out that jets don’t run well or safely on recycled cooking oil. I am baffled that so many spoiled brat billionaires have been co-opted into green bs.
did he really try bio diesel?
had not heard that before
Obama’s USAF expanded Bush’s greenie-tree demands for USAF eco-fuels … the “new and improved” jet fuel ended costing some 260.00 dollars a gallon, much of it from bio-fuel, regardless of what it did to the engines and fuel nozzles and fuel pumps in the aircraft. From the defense (USAF budget – which the Obama White House hated/did not care about and wanted to weaken if not destroy) to greenie defense contractors who had contributed to democrat politicians and NGO efforts – which the Obama White House most very specifically DID care about and DID want to strengthen! )
RACookPE1978, don’t worry, the same fuel filters they use to filter the dirty filthy diesel fuel that a gas turbine burns are very effective in filtering out solids in bio-fuels: http://highpuritynorthwest.com/diesel-fuel-filtration-improves-gas-turbine-reliability/
I know usaf messed with it, but never heard branson trying it on passenger a/c.
It really is sad the way some warmists actually believe that they already know all that is worth knowing.
IE, solids aren’t the only problem with bio-fuels.
Tell us MarkW, what other than solids could be problematic?
You do realize that a gas turbine can run on straight vegtable oil rith?
..
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610214000125
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7261214.stm – “The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has taken place.
A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet has flown between London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.
Environmentalists have branded the flight a publicity stunt and claim biofuel cultivation is not sustainable.”
How do they prevent the bio-diesel from “gellin up” at altitudes of 25,000 to 42,000 feet?
Samuel C Cougar: “To avoid water condensation or the fuel itself solidifying at low temperatures (-55 °C), fuel tanks have thermometers and heating systems. ”
..
..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_fuel_system#Turbine_fuel_system
convert the fleet to electric. of course this won’t work because you don’t have a practical battery design, and thousand mile extension cords are problematic.
If you had the 100 billion dollar green fund, how would you go about developing a better battery:
1. give the 100 billion dollars to poor countries
2. pay government scientists to research climate
3. announce a 100 billion dollar prize for a battery to replace fossil fuels
Plus, the Tesla recharging model doesn’t work well for Aircraft (Landing to recharge every 250 miles???)
convert the fleet to electric. of course this won’t work because you don’t have a practical battery design, and thousand mile extension cords are problematic.
But isn’t lightening a renewable source of energy? – why not just harness THAT? – oh yeah, that’s right, it’s too infrequent and unpredictable.
Hamsters!
Bryan, the answer is obviously to have KC-135 style refueling tankers, except they won’t be filled with fuel, they will have a generator burning fuel with an extension cord plugged into the electric commercial airliner — Green Logic.
ferd, how long an extension cord can a jet carry, and still get off the ground?
Well, it doesn’t take much to “baffle” a liberal socialist mind…IMO
Reality in general baffles them on a daily basis.
It is not surprising that Billionaires and Multi-Millionaires are baffled or even angry that Trump has decided to exit the Paris ‘Agreement’ – they are the ones that benefit from Governments that print money for the mega-corporations to devour at the expense of the citizens via taxes or higher costs due to carbon credit ‘schemes’, etc.
I love the silly notion of “Renewable R&D”. Are they going to find a way to make the sun always shine or the wind always blow? Some have confused battery storage with energy production. Apparently they don’t realize that batteries STORE energy, they do not GENERATE energy.And what’s going to restore those batteries energy when they go dry and, at the same time, supply the grid? Branson is one high profile moron.
How much power could burning a billion dollars in cash generate?
Just curious.
Cloth has roughly 7,000 BTU/lb. Each bill weighs roughly 1 gram.
If it’s in Washingtons, that comes out to 2.2 million lb of notes, getting you 15,418 MMBTU. That’s enough to fuel a small industrial furnace (2 MMBTU/hr) furnace for a year, or enough to fire a stove (5,000 BTU/hr) for 200-300 years.
If it’s in Franklins, just drop 2 zeros from all of those numbers
If, for example, it was in Zimbabwean dollars from a few years ago, even a million REAL dollars would end up with a couple of forest’s worth of Z$.
I don’t think they have any intention to “find a way”. They just want R&D funding from taxpayers. And that’s what baffles him the most, how is he going to taxpayer money now?
“ritish billionaire Richard Branson” ??
I’ll assume that should have been “British”
Could be
Fritish
Gritish
Pritish (Pratish?)
Twittish
GRIFFISH
Whether it’s GE,…the worlds biggest supplier of wind turbines
Here’s me thinking Branson was quite clever, yet he can’t even figure this out!
He’s spent too much time in the echo chamber. Quite a common affliction in the tech world.
Echo chamber or Eco chamber?
The Eco-industry$ echo chamber. Money for nothin’
Branson, like Musk, is a classic example of the male ego doing its worst. You make loads of money selling a basic product (air flights, or online payments) to eager consumers, then think that makes you a technology guru. Virgin Galactic and similar flights of fancy from Musk prove otherwise, there is something called engineering that will always shoot down monster business egos.
If the field of “renewables” is such a good investment, Branson and his buddies should use their own money.
Tom Halla- THAT is the question that we should be asking every single time this issue arises! Perfect, concise, and extremely revealing.
+10
There is an old joke on this general line==>A syndicator for oil exploration from New York is talking to the Texas oil wildcatter about the long series of dry holes the Texan has drilled, and the response is always “Well, it could have been worse”. When finally asked to explain what he meant by “worse”, the Texan came back with “Well, it could have been MY money”.
And it’s a common malpractice in all investments to sell more than 100% of the working interest to partners. If you can raise 200% of an investment for a project, that project makes you money if it fails, and it better fail or else you are left paying 200% back to the investors. Someone got rich from the long list of renewable energy company bankruptcies, and it wasn’t the investors (taxpayers).
The Max Bialystock principle (Come on, Germans, go into your dance).
It isn’t a Godwin’s Law violation If the Nazis are dancing.
Renewables are a great investment – as long as the government adds taxpayer’s money generously.
As long as we quit subsidizing the green schemes and investors are required to risk their own money instead of mine, I’m happy.
That’s pretty much fine by everyone I think, Dickey – with the possible exception of your shareholders who still retain a functioning brain cell. Just so long as you don’t start squealing for subsidies and demanding everyone buys your products at economically non-viable prices to save the world without any evidence that the world needs saving. Suggestion for the venture – Virgin Blob.
Doesn’t one of his chief engineers have a public but opposing view to Al Gore’s Warming?
Yes, Burt Rutan’s company is building Branson’s spaceships. Rutan is an active climate change sceptic who has actually lectured on the subject. If Branson is “baffled”, all he has to do is ask Burt to explain the garbage, otherwise known as climate science.
Another climate sceptic is Harrison Schmidt, the only scientist to walk on the moon.
Actually, I thought Trump made it clear in his speech. He stated that, if fully implemented, by the end of the century Paris would achieve a global cooling of – drum roll please – one fifth of a degree Celsius.
It’s a no-brainer. I’m baffled as to why Branson is baffled!
Chris
Chris “rubbish” Branson doesn’t understand garbage.
Sir Richard’s bafflement instantly reminded me of a song written by Sir Paul:
Did I hear you say
That there must be a catch
Will you walk away
From a fool and his money
If you want it,
Here it is,
Come and get it,
But you better hurry
Cause it’s going fast.
He smiles and he’s good at PR, but some people think he’s just as tricky as any other self-made billionaire. link
I always think of Zaphod Beeblebrox when i see him. Funny.
Me thinks this is like when some celebrities were saying that if Trump wins they were going to leave the USA. At the end nobody left. I guess Branson is pretending to invest on renewables and see if he can convince somebody else to put the bulk of the money, so he does not have to. And then to take credit on “saving the planet”.
The believer is always baffled when someone tells him that his god does not exist.
Ed, I think that is the most profound thought that I have run across yet today — But it is quite early, yet. Truly, honestly, simply profound — and describes a burden that will always and for eternity be a burden for human kind to bear.
I’d say you’re going on a bit far there. A believer has people every other day telling him his God does not exist. The bafflement is on the other side, mostly.
“…companies are now even more driven to invest in clean energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.”
Yeah, I’ll bet they are. As long as there’s still free money being handed out for so-called “clean energy”, they’re in. I mean,who doesn’t like free money? But the spigot’s going to close, and when it does, we’ll see how much Branson and his fellow virtue signallers want to “invest” in it.
I don’t see the spigot closing. Congress keeps handing out free money to wind and solar. Who’s going to stop them? Is Trump willing to veto a bill just to stop this? The PTC was extended for 5 years in 2015. This was REPUBLICANS doing. Ryan and others. So, again, how do you plan to stop this? Elections certainly won’t work.
I’m baffled by the fact that he doesn’t make an effort to save suffering humanity right now rather than worrying about what might happen 100years out. Take some of that fossil fuel generated wealth and buy kerosine stoves for poor African women, for example
That would be inconsistent with the primary tenet of Green philosophy, which is, that too many human beings exist.
Branson is no fool. Virgin/Branson is a brand, and a brand that appeals largely to the young middle classes. Supporting Greenery and being anti-Trump simply plays to that audience.
When it was record-breaking stunts (that used vast amounts of fossil fuels), that was what he did. When it was trying to save (the hugely fuel guzzling Concorde), that’s what he did. Now all you have to do is send a few right-on Tweets and the young think you are OK..
I bet renewable startups will have better success when using private money than they ever did using public money. Private money tends to demand success. Maybe now that the Trump has taken government out of the energy business, we will finally see true renewable breakthroughs.
One can always hope…
I bet there won’t be much private money invested in renewable energy R & D. The whole ‘rush-to-renewables’ movement was driven by the widespread belief in a climate crisis, and generous government subsidies. Both of those are beginning to wane. Government money is spent based on ‘feelings’. Private money is spent based on reality!
The most likely “breakthrough” that we will see will be something like to feeding corn to a horse and then using the horse to pull buggies and wagons, etc., for transport rather than converting the corn to ethanol to use to power internal combustion engines. And maybe using this renewable ‘bio-fuel’ that we call wood in wood-burning stoves to heat our homes and to cook our food. Been there and done that but it was long ago an far away in a world that sometimes seems never really was. The likelihood that I will live long enough to return to that lifestyle is virtually nil……Unless parasitoidic people such as the Goracle have their way with our current energy production and distribution systems.
Richard Nixon may have been right when he said something to the effect that “1968 in The United States is the best time and place that humans had ever lived.” I think he was intending that to be historical in context but without necessarily intending to, he may have been prophetic.
There seems to be an underlying assumption that if governments use enough force-of-regulation and laws and/or enough financial inducements then it is just a matter of time before a solution will magically appear much in the manner that all of the magic money magically appears from the magic hole in the air from which The Federal Reserve conjures to magic money so it can be used for financial inducements. That could very well be an assumption that is kin to assuming that it is just a matter of time and intent before someone will achieve a breakthrough in the design of functional perpetual motion machines, devices and processes.
Based on the “save the planet” narrative that goes along with the Climate Agreement most people are for it. However, if you revealed the actual details…….what it might do, who pays, where the money goes and so on, in the US, only the minds captured by the catastrophic (human caused) climate change cult would support it.
Obviously the rest of the world supports the US tax payer taking on the biggest burden. However, the US tax payer has a right to know where their money is being spent. Not what the the scheme asserts it will do(save the planet by reducing a beneficial gas) but the nuts and bolts that show what each country is paying, where the money really goes and the authentic science related to carbon dioxide.
In private business, the absence of this information would be a no brainer, deal breaker. In government and politics the absence of this information DEFINES deals like this.
Focusing on global climate model projections of temperature as the key element in a marketing scheme to promote an agenda that excludes an objective comprehensive analysis of our greening planet is scientific fraud.
Independent Online 22 September 2006
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/branson-pledges-3bn-to-combat-global-warming-417027.html
“Branson pledges $3bn to combat global warming”
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
It will…be an extremely tall order since Virgin’s various air and train ventures contributed only £90m to the group’s coffers last year. That means they will either have to start making a lot more money or Sir Richard will have to look elsewhere for contributions.”
He didn’t deliver, fast forward to 2014:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/13/richard-branson-failed-climate-change-pledge
“Richard Branson failed to deliver on $3bn climate change pledge”
“New book by Naomi Klein claims that Virgin founder gave less than a tenth of cash promised to develop low carbon fuel.”
In 2009 he set up the Carbon War Room, with the brother of ex-IPCC’s Christiana Figueres, Jose, as Chairman, he became President in 2012. In 2014, the CWR merged with Amory Lovins Rocky Mountain Institute, with Figueres as a trustee. Also a trustee is Obama’s Chief Climate Negotiator, Todd Stern…..
https://www.rmi.org/about/board-of-trustees/
“Stern was the chief U.S. negotiator of the successful Paris Agreement. Stern previously served in the Clinton administration as Assistant to the President, and as Staff Secretary in the White House from 1993 to 1998, during which time he also acted as the senior White House negotiator for the Kyoto Protocol and Buenos Aires negotiations.”
Birds of a feather etc.
+10
Let me check those percentages again. Yep, ya gotta look real close to find wind and solar on this little item from the IEA…….
Is it just me? Does Algore look like Kim Jong Un’s brother?
It is you. You might benefit from getting your eyes checked.
Last trip to the eye doc showed better than 20/20 vision, Luis…..
Nope. Algore is WAY taller.
You are mistaken. He looks like Kim Jong Un’s mother.
The crest is already true
He looks like he might have eaten Kim Jong Un’s mother.