1 December '09
12:23 PM EST
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Cleantech
Top Ten Players in Green Energy

November Top Ten Players in Green Energy: Nos. 6-10

10: Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Barbara Boxer

KERRY-BOXERIt was, in many respects, a disastrous month for the two authors of the senate climate change bill, widely known as Kerry-Boxer.

All of the Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer chairs, boycotted a vote on the measure on Nov. 5, which lead Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to declare the bill dead.

Oddly enough, it was Kerry who effectively killed his own bill when he started pursuing a separate track of negotiationson climate change legislation with Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. But all is not lost. The Obama administration’s newfound seriousness about emissions reductions, symbolized by his trip to the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, could give a boost to the foundering process in the senate. Expect Boxer and especially Kerry to become relevant again soon.

9: Wilbur Ross, Founder and Chief Executive Officer W.L. Ross & Co.

At a time when China’s cleantech sector has been rolling out deals that are starting to create ripples on Capitol Hill, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, founder and Chief Executive Officer of buyout firm W.L. Ross & Co., picked up $100 million in shares in China’s Longyuan Power Group Corp, Asia’s largest wind power generator. The share offering this month is expected to raise $2.2 billion, one of the sector’s largest flotations and Ross is obviously looking to cash in on a possible upside in the Longyuan share offering.

Ross is joining a growing list of billionaire greens who’re eager to ride the cleantech wave. They include Richard Branson at Virgin, Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway (who also features in our November ranking), and George Soros (#10 in our November ranking). Yet, unlike Branson or Soros, who have said that climate change issues are motivating their green investments, Ross’ Longyuan play seems to be solely about the bottom line. Read More »

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5 November '09
8:14 AM EST
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Policy

UPDATE: Boxer Holds Vote Without Republicans, Inhofe Responds

 

UPDATE: Sen. Barbara Boxer held a vote this morning in the Environment and Public Works Committee without any Republicans present and has passed the climate change bill out of committee.

Montana Democrat Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, voted against the measure leading Republican James Inhofe to declare “that bill is dead.”

ORIGINAL POST: Does the senate have any hope of passing a climate change bill before the Copenhagen talks on Dec. 7?

No. Maybe. We don’t know.

As of right now, the process is a disaster. Republicans, led by Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, have boycotted the markup process in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee because they want a more extensive (and totally unnecessary) five-week EPA review of the bill.

Democratic Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer has threatened to conduct the markup without them.

(The above Tulsa World story has the fascinating and bizarre detail that Inhofe and Boxer were holding hands while talking about their long friendship. What this means we have no idea.) Read More »

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3 November '09
10:43 AM EST
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Top Ten Players in Green Energy

The Top Ten Players in Green Energy: Nos. 1-5

5:   A123 Systems

It’s been a little more than a month since the initial public offering (IPO) of lithium-ion battery maker, A123 Systems.

So far the stock is still trading above its IPO price. On Monday, November 2nd the stock closed at $19.54. The company went public on September 23 at $13.50. A couple of weeks ago it announced a deal with Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer IHI Corp., to sell batteries and battery systems to the automobile and ship building sectors. The deal assures A123 an entry into the competitive Japanese and Asian markets.

But will the battery maker run out of breath? The stock is down from its $28.20 high of a few weeks ago and although its revenues are steadily climbing, the company has yet to turn a profit.

4:   Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson

Rex w. Tillerson

The head of the world’s most powerful company will always be a force to be reckoned with.

We challenged his advocacy of a carbon tax at the beginning of October, which seems more like a stall tactic than an actual move forward on climate change legislation. But a company that plows tens of billions of dollars into energy R&D and exploration – notably a $600 million investment in Synthetic Genomics’ algae-based biofuel – wields a lot of clout.

Lately, Exxon officials have also been pushing natural gas as the clean and cost-effective fossil fuel of the future. And you know, they’ve got a point… Read More »

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2 November '09
4:06 PM EST
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Policy

GOP to Boycott Senate Climate Change Bill

James Inhofe Trying to Put the Brakes on Kerry - Boxer

Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are not planing to participate in the markup of the Kerry – Boxer climate change bill, which Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had scheduled for Tuesday.

Will this block the legislation? Senate rule requires that at least two Republicans participate in the markup session, reports CQ Politics. Boxer is circumventing that requirement by scheduling a “committee business meeting.” This will allow the Committee’s Democrats, which account for 12 of the Committee’s 19 members, to work on the bill without any Republicans present. Read More »

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27 October '09
9:34 AM EDT
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Policy

White House on Climate Change Legislation: It’s The Economy, Stupid

BoxerThe Senate Environment and Public Works Committee begins hearings today on the the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill,  the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

You might think that a bill devoted to mitigating the effects of global warming would inspire testimony about climate change.

You would be wrong.

Following the lead of President Obama’s Friday speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a poll showing that Americans care less about global warming than they used to, the whole administration has begun to cleave to the old Clintonian saw in the climate change debate: It’s the economy, stupid.

Let’s look at Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s testimony. Read More »

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