Bill Gates, Others Launch Clean Energy Fund

The $1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures will invest in companies that make clean energy cheaper

 .. Fellow investors include Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, LinkedIn Corp. Chairman Reid Hoffman, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma, and retired hedge fund manager John Arnold.
.. Members include billionaires Tom Steyer, George Soros and Richard Branson, and the University of California.
.. Reducing the cost of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, and making it cheaper to add more of this power to the grid are areas the fund would likely support, Mr. Gates said in an interview.
.. While current clean-energy technologies should be used as much as possible, the technologies that will enable the U.S. and the world’s other major economies to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 will be invented in the next 10 to 20 years, Mr. Gates added.
.. “By 2050, at least the large countries in the key sectors have to essentially be at zero,” he said.
.. Mr. Gates said that he and other investors want to convince the Trump administration to maintain or increase government funding for energy research and development.
.. U.S. venture-capital equity financing has fallen for new energy and other clean technology companies, to $2.2 billion this year through September, from $5.7 billion in 2011
.. More investment in next-generation technologies, such as power storage, could help solve some of the problems that come from generating more power from wind and sunshine, some energy industry participants and analysts said.

Exxon Mobil Chief Rises as Trump’s Choice for Secretary of State

As Exxon’s top official, Mr. Tillerson has extensive experience working with foreign leaders. Some of his foreign relationships, especially those with Russia, could come under particular scrutiny during a Senate confirmation hearing.

.. Mr. Tillerson has worked to strengthen Exxon Mobil’s ties with Russia. The company has various joint ventures with the oil giant Rosneft around Russia,

.. In 2012, the Russian government awarded Mr. Tillerson the country’s Order of Friendship decoration.

.. Western sanctions against Russia prohibiting the nation from certain energy development activities have slowed Exxon Mobil’s investments

.. In addition, Exxon Mobil has close connections with the Qatari national oil company

.. Mr. Tillerson assumed the role of chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil on Jan. 1, 2006. During his tenure, the company has acknowledged the science underlying climate change and said it supports a carbon tax. It has also expressed support for the Paris climate agreement.

.. while Exxon Mobil and its representatives had been careful to say they supported the Paris agreement, under which nearly every nation has agreed to reduce emissions, “a read of their public energy assessments make it clear they have no intention of helping the world meet that target or adjust their business plans in that direction.”

My Unhappy Life as a Climate Heretic

My research was attacked by thought police in journalism, activist groups funded by billionaires and even the White House.

I believe climate change is real and that human emissions of greenhouse gases risk justifying action, including a carbon tax. But my research led me to a conclusion that many climate campaigners find unacceptable: There is scant evidence to indicate that hurricanes, floods, tornadoes or drought have become more frequent or intense in the U.S. or globally. In fact we are in an era of good fortune when it comes to extreme weather.

.. The insurance industry scientist Robert-Muir Wood of Risk Management Solutions had smuggled the graph into the IPCC report. He explained in a public debate with me in London in 2010 that he had included the graph and misreferenced it because he expected future research to show a relationship between increasing disaster costs and rising temperatures.

.. In 2015 I was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Paige St. John, making the rather obvious point that politicians use the weather-of-the-moment to make the case for action on climate change, even if the scientific basis is thin or contested.