Ireland Owens
Contributor
A climate group started by billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is reportedly slashing some of its workforce in part due to Republicans winning back power.
The green energy group, Breakthrough Energy, has laid off multiple workers and is also planning to eliminate its U.S. policy side, an anonymous source told Politico’s E&E News. Another anonymous source told the outlet that Breakthrough Energy’s policy team’s last day of work would be Friday.
Several staffers on Breakthrough Energy’s philanthropic side were also laid off, one anonymous source told the outlet. Relatedly, The New York Times reported Wednesday that “dozens” of Breakthrough Energy staffers were laid off, including the group’s entire U.S.-based team working on policy issues, most of its employees working on partnerships with other climate organizations, as well as its European unit.
Gates’ decision to slash Breakthrough Energy’s U.S. policy team was in part caused by him anticipating that the team was unlikely to have a significant impact in Washington, D.C. following the Republican Party’s victories in November, winning control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, anonymous sources told the NYT.
“Bill Gates remains as committed as ever to advancing the clean energy innovations needed to address climate change,” a spokesperson for Gates told the NYT in a statement when asked about the cuts. “His work in this area will continue and is focused on helping drive reliable affordable, clean energy solutions that will enable people everywhere to thrive.”
In February, Breakthrough Energy told its partners that it would slash its climate grantmaking budget this year, Heatmap News reported.
Breakthrough Energy was founded by Gates in 2015, and the group aims to “inspire the world to develop and scale the critical solutions we need to reach net-zero emissions—so everyone can enjoy affordable, abundant clean energy,” according to its website. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Unveils Bill To Block Future Presidents From Launching An ‘Assault On Domestic Energy’)
Notably, Gates has backed various clean energy initiatives over the past several years, including investing in green energy startups and climate change research.
President Donald Trump has been overseeing a sweeping effort to revitalize America’s energy sector and “unleash” American energy as part of his broader “energy dominance” agenda. While on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to overturn various green energy policies and regulations put into place by the previous presidential administration.
Breakthrough Energy did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
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I wonder just how much of Bill Gates “charity” work is to head off “Nice business you have here, damn pity if something happens to it” from prospective “regulators”.
How much of hos “Charity” funding passed through USAID?
All of it.
I always wondered how Soros and Gates donate and donate and donate
and always end up richer,
while whenever I donate I end up with less money.
Seems they take other peoples money to finance their tyranny of good intentions (PCRoberts) and then take credit for it.
No surprise that all of MSM ,Politicians,NGO’s are now attacking Trump and Musk so heavily.
The oligarchy is not willing to pay for all the charity,green transition,vaccines out of their own pocket,
therefore they are doing everything to save their illegal access to unlimited amounts of US taxpayer money.
97% of course.
Just what has this outfit done in the last 10 years that has helped to solve an energy problem? Let me answer that. Nothing! Likely designed to get grant money to line his pocket. Gates does not do anything unless he benefits. He did quite well with COVID while people were deceived and mandated into giving over their person liberties to the tyrants.
Fun related story. Gates sank a fortune into possible 4gen nuclear TerraPower (travelling wave fast breeder reactor). Was going to get the Chinese to build the multibillion prototype until China backed out. Currently consuming a big Biden green grant but with no prototype on the horizon. Gates green energy record is all losses, no gains.
Is Gates picking up the losses or taxpayers?
Was him. Now is us.
Thanks Rud.
I probably should have known the answer the moment I posed the question 🙁
Shut it down, Mr. President, and God’s speed.
I looked at the Breakthrough Energy website. Their stated goal is “To get to zero”.
The actual result would be “to turn the US into a third world country.”
And the Trump Administration is doing all they can to ensure they make it to Net Zero Government Funding
That’s all that’s required to say.
Data centres and the MS like require a lot of juice.
If he wants to signal virtue… he could come up with a half decent operating system.
No he couldn’t. He could always buy (or nick) one from someone else who has, and then stuff it up completely.
I’m thinking DR DOS, X-Windows, VMX….
More good news.
What does it tell us of the futility of renewables when multi-billionaire Bill Gates starts closing his Green Energy Workgroup shop because government funding is drying up? I guess even he doesn’t BELIEVE in the cause enough to keep the workgroup going on his personal fortune
Gates is interesting. His Microsoft fortune came solely from IBM adopting MS-DOS, which Microsoft licensed then bought the core to. (Was called QDOS, ‘quick and dirty operating system’, from Seattle Computer Products.) Given the enormous IBM market share boost, he built an enormous near monopoly. Copied Excel from VisiCalc , copied Word from WordPerfect, copied Powerpoint from Presenter. Copied Windows from Apple Mac.
Unlike Ellison, who built Oracle from scratch. Unlike Musk, who built Tesla and SpaceX from scratch. Unlike Zuckerberg, who (mostly) built Facebook from scratch. Unlike rival Jobs, who built Apple from scratch, then returned to save its computer business with Mac and then extend the franchise into iPods, iPhones, IPads, iWatchs, iApps, and iBooks.
Gates is lucky and ruthless, not creative or smart.
Not surprising that he got way out over his skis on climate and green energy.
Agreed on everything. He even dumpster dived (dove?) to get the source of a BASIC compiler to use for his own BASIC product which he sold in the early Altair and IMSAI days, and then complained when people traded copies, saying that was theft! The irony ….
So I’ll tell you a rambling story about Bill Gates, Microsoft, and Y2K. I had a friend who was really good at coming up with conspiracy theories which were just plausible enough to make you think, and you could never get any real answer from him whether he believed them himself.
The Microsoft anti-trust trial was happening while the Y2K scare was ramping up. My precautions were to withdraw $200 from an ATM a couple of days before; a friend warned everybody that from then (1996) until Y2K, whenever they bought groceries, they should buy 3-4 times as much as they needed to stock up. I asked him, don’t you think my neighbors might notice I wasn’t boiling grass and catching field mice, and put two and two together and come-a-callin’ with shotguns?
One of Microsoft’s defense exhibits during that trial was a video showing various aspects of who knows what, which Bill Gates, on the stand, swore up and down was shot in one single take. No editing. No pauses. Then someone noticed the clock changing time, jumping forward and backward, icons appearing and disappearing and moving around. Yet the judge didn’t complain, the US prosecutor didn’t complain.
The standard theory was that Bill Gates was trying to piss off the judge so much that they could get a mistrial, and that was why the judge and prosecutor didn’t complain.
My friend’s conspiracy theory was that Bill Gates wanted to force a loss and get Microsoft broken into application and OS parts, so when Y2K blew everything up, he could blame everything on the confusion caused by the breakup.
Don’t forget Windows NT, which became Windows 2000. It was originally VMX, effectively nicked by Steve Balmer who used to work on it.
I mean the core was VMX, and extremely stable. Microsoft managed to add all the flaws of Windows 95 into it eventually (registry, anyone?), and made it just as bad.
It was a former DEC guy who used to work on VMS at DEC before working on NT at Microsoft.
The contract that MS had with MITS was that after MITS sold $250,000 worth of BASIC licenses, MITS would no longer need to pay royalties. Gates, being a son of lawyers, managed to get a court to change the contract to require MITS to keep paying royalties. Commodore may have learned from that and paid MS a lump sum for the BASIC code used on the PET. Commodore then used the same code on other computers including the C-64, which is why the C-64 BASIC interpreter was so wonky.
Seems to me that most of these people were doing “policy”, and little to nothing of actual substance, like science or engineering that could be applied in the real world. Basically play acting at work, buy getting paid in real dollars. I think the economy has had more than enough of this racket.
Ah well one door closes and another opens for the useless green blob-
‘Polygamous working’ civil servant held multiple jobs, UK investigation finds
I worked for a government department once. I pushed and pushed to get my fully working system installed and used. Eventually managing it. I made a lot of enemies, but managed to exit and return to take on the support contract.
Later, I realised that I should have just stut up, let things take their slow course, and taken on a couple of remote working contracts to do during work time. I would have been much better off.
I’m pretty sure protesters will fill Microsoft headquarters soon demanding reinstatement. Union and government lawsuits to stop the layoffs should be filed soon too.
That’s a very unflattering picture of him..
Looks half reptile……..
… oh, hmmm 😉
And I, for one, welcome our new reptilian overlords.
No such thing as “clean energy.”
Nor will what is passed off as such do a damn thing about the “climate.”
A$$hole.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Gates knows how to play the game of life as he has been doing so since he struck oil with Microsoft some would say rather fortuitously.
I’ll never forget many years ago meeting a “lecturer” who claimed he had worked for Microsoft and was proud to announced to his audience that he had once parked his car in Gates’s parking place. .
Mr. Gates’ former company is bringing Three Mile Island back online. Maybe Mr. Gates has decided that nuclear power is the only rational solution to “global warming” … and it’s the best solution with or without “global warming.”
No he knows his power hungry “AI” data centers cannot run on intermittent, unreliable, undependable, inconsistent, erratic wind and solar power.
You know, JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE.
In December, 1999, God decided to end the Earth. He decided to give people a chance to make final preparations, so he call up the Soviet Premier, the President of the United States, and Bill Gates.
With the news, the three made announcements to their various constituents.
Soviet Premier: Comrades, I have 2 pieces of bad news. First there is a God. Second, he plans to destroy the earth.
POTUS: My fellow Americans, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is there is a God. The bad news is the planet will end in a couple of weeks.
Gates at an all hands meeting: People, I have 2 pieces of great news. First, I am one of the 3 most important persons on Earth. Second, we do not have to solve Y2K.