Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos...Major Investment In Clean Energy

[westwall]

The problem is the money will come from those who can't afford to give it. Or is that lost on you?

Read what I wrote FFS before popping off. I'll reiterate:

"if they want to pump their $$$ in to push the technologies closer to that threshold good on them"

The problem is they are not. They are taking money from the poor and the middle class to do it.

Well if that is the case my opinion would likely change, but I don't see any proof of that and certainly not enough to toss the raspberry at them yet.

I read the article in which it seems they are addressing the problematic issue of profitability and seeking to help push those technologies over the hump. That basic issue is central to the development of any technology of course as if it doesn't sell to the people, it ain't going anywhere.

It also cites the Breakthrough Energy Coalition which is a private vehicle for funding the investment in these technologies. Yes, there is some gubmint partnership discussed, however, I don't see the pipeline from the poor/middle class to this coalition.

I think it's smart to get the private sector involved, as they are much, much better at this sort of thing than government in the long term, and it seems (to me at least) that this is what they are trying to do here.

without some serious $$$ behind it I don't see how we get over that hump whereby clean energies are more efficient than fossil fuels, which have had the luxury of many, many years of intensive development in terms of both the acquisition of the fuels and the maximization of their efficiency.

I think I'd let it play out before jumping with both feet on it like some offshoot of the AGW fringe element. These guys aren't nuts, they are arguably some of the brightest folks walking the planet today so if not them, then who I guess.....

I suggest you look up the litany of failed government loans to the various "green" energy companies out there. All have failed, all have been paid for by the American taxpayer and the one percenters have laughed all the way to the bank.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will suggest, again, that you actually read what it is you are responding to before clattering away on your keyboard.

I do not support government funded efforts like this as government kind of sucks at it, but I have a tendency at this point to at least consider this initiative- precisely because it is not a government effort, but rather something being advanced by the private sector.

if we are to get over this hump a ton of cash will need to be pumped into it, the private sector will have to lead, and this is a tough nut for reasons I've cited before in terms of lack of profitability that is starving the industry of that necessary investment capital.

these people are among the most successful business leaders in the history of the planet, are we supposed to think that they don't have a clue about how to launch an effort or leverage the private sector? that's just crazy talk, far as I'm concerned.

I guess I should also be clear that I'm no fan of the AGW movement in all of it's embodiments. While it's pretty clear to me that there is a problem, I think a lot of it is clap-trap motivated by people cashing in and I do think there is an element that are using this as an excuse to advance political agendas and I do not trust them one bit, BUT, if we are to advance technologies we need to invest in those technologies. To this point this has been a huge sticking point with clean energy, as it has not crossed the threshold of being profitable.

These people see this and cite getting over that hump as exactly what they are trying to do. They've identified a major problem with development in this sector and are attacking it. To me this makes perfect sense.

Not everyone that is developing future technologies is the boogeyman. I'd rather see people like this doing things like this rather than having the politicians selling us carbon credits or using other methods to jerk with the other side of the economic equation in order to make these technologies falsely 'profitable' such as jacking taxes on energies, cap and trade, etc. etc..

Will they be successful? I don't know. Tough nut to crack here, that is for sure, but what they are trying to do makes sense to me so I think it's worth hearing them out at the very least.....

Every time a billionaire says they are going to do something they are always getting government handouts to to do it. From Elon Musk and his 5 billion dollars from the State of Nevada taxpayers, all 3 million of them, to Nancy Pelosi's relatives and their bailout from the Solyndra debacle. The rich don't pay for their "ideas". We the taxpayers do. They are experts at using other peoples money to play their games....

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Bunch of rich idiots who either have no idea or no care for the harm their AGW scam is causing.

I'm guessing but-----but I'm guessing that, like most smart people this group has - in one form or another invoked...

...Bill Clinton's Grandma & Grandpa test:

"I think with regard to science we have to at least get those people who have no interest in it to adopt what is now my mode of thinking—the grandparent test. That is, you name me one other risk-related decision, where if 95 percent of the experts were here and one to five percent of the experts were there, any grandparent would stake his or her grandchild’s future on the five percent. So how about this—suppose one guy wrote one article in one journal and said, You know, I’ve been thinking about these child-restraint seats and I think you know there’s a one-in-a-million chance a kid could snap his neck so I recommend just throwing the kid in the backseat and letting him roll around. And ninety-nine percent of you would say, Oh my God, you can’t do that. These are working—look at how much the fatalities have gone down.

Name me one grandparent that would choose the one percent? Not one."

I'm wondering, what test do you climate deniers use to conclude that bunch of mostly self-made billionaires/multi-millionaires/futurists/innovators/entrepreneurs are idiots? G'head, roll the dice on your baby's... future - now who's the idiot?

.

There is no true 95% or even 97% .
Propaganda.
Ask scientists and you'll find out the entire AGW agenda is a grant-funded scam.
You are the close-minded grandparent you refer to.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Bunch of rich idiots who either have no idea or no care for the harm their AGW scam is causing.

ironic first denier response is ironic. Proves OP's siggie.

The group is willing to fund the risky part that most capitalists are too scared/incapable of undertaking.

You're just another dupe who refuses to consult science.