PrintMarch 23, 2007
Global Warming's Patent Profitability
Al Gore is well schooled at manipulating the levers of power and money to his benefit. Heads or tails Al Gore almost never loses. It's been this way pretty much all his life. Starting when Daddy Al set up him in fine style, including an annuity from a Zinc Mine Pop finagled with Armand Hammer, the Communists' favorite capitalist, Al's always been well taken care of. By hook or crook, Gore has reputedly piled up more than $200 million in his bank account since his 2000 Presidential run.
It has been said that Donald Trump is an excellent example of what a shrewd man can accomplish when he inherits $40 million. Al Gore is also an excellent example of what one can accomplish with unusually good hereditary access to capital, of the monetary and political sort.
Mr. Gore's Capital Hill encore is the culmination of a long and well-financed campaign. Ostensibly, his purpose Wednesday was to outline a 10 point plan to combat what he declares is the coming catastrophe, more about which in due course. While his accomplices in the drive-by media slickly packaged up his appearance with fawning praise just in time for the evening news, the actual event was a far different story.
Frankly, he needs new writers. Hopping from one cliché to another like his mascot polar bears clambering from one sinking ice flow to the next, with lines like "the proof is in the pudding" and "the greatest generation" just to name a few. I could be mistaken, but it looked to me like Al enlisted William Shatner to coach him on this one. Shatner, famous for totally overacting every part he ever played, just had to be giving him pointers. (Spock..., I'm...dying...uh..uh...I...can'..nt...hold...on...uh). When the audience was warmed up, Gore served up the best messianic oratory he could muster. Although, in his case it always seems like a cheap imitation.
"The time will come, I promise you, (voice quaking) when a future generation will look back and they will ask one of two questions either they will ask, what in God's name were they doing? (recited in sanctimonious staccato) didn't they see the evidence? (progressively raising voice in anger) didn't they here the warnings? didn't they see the mountain glaciers melting in every part of this earth? didn't they see the polar ice caps melting? didn't they here the scientists say it may be gone in as little as 34 years? didn't they here the seismographers tell the earth is shaking because of the glacial earth quakes on Greenland? 32 of em this year up to 5.1 on the Richter scale. didn't they the see the evidence of nature on the run?..."
And it went on like this for several hours. Democrats praising him as the new prophet and a few Republicans, namely James Inhofe, confronting the hysteria Gore has been trying to incite for the last several years.
Interposing his passionate pleas with his 10 point plan to save the world, Gore outlined a veritable grab bag of proposals that somehow all ended with the same solution, more government power, especially by raising taxes. Surrounded by old Washington hands, Gore and his gang demonstrated great ingenuity in the variety of ideas presented, all with one goal in mind, picking the public's pocket. Perhaps the boldest of them all, was his call for the creation of a new government agency "Connie Mae" to create and trade "carbon credits" ala Fannie Mae. Helpfully, he fantasized out loud about a future in which consumers would get out their checkbooks and write checks to Connie Mae right along with paying their mortgages. You could almost see the dollar signs gleaming in his eyes. Cha ching.
So where did this come from? Were Tipper and Al engaged in pillow talk in one of their four mansions one night and suddenly Al the prophet leaps up from the bed crying: "By Zeus, I've got it! Connie Mae!"
I think not. No, this has been in the works for a very long time. Back in November 2006, Fannie Mae was granted a patent for a system to trade greenhouse gas-reduction credits paid by homeowners. The application was filed in April 2005. Fannie is just now getting out from under a huge scandal that threatened the safety and soundness of the housing finance system. In the wake of this, it is unlikely Congress and the regulators will go along with this scheme. Although, I wouldn't make book on it.
Ousted Chief Executive Franklin Raines is listed in the patent as an inventor of a system for verifying cuts in household emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The patent, granted on Nov. 7 and held jointly with a subsidiary of New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald LP, gives Fannie Mae proprietary control over a method for pooling and selling credits to companies that can't meet emission reduction targets. According to Bloomberg, Connie Russell, a spokeswoman for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight that regulates Fannie Mae, said the agency is reviewing the patent and wouldn't comment further.
Besides Bloomberg, the patent award was lightly reported by the Washington Post and Marketwatch. There appear to be no press releases from Fannie Mae on this either.
I have not examined the patent award closely but the Patent Office has a lot problems, granting patents when they shouldn't and denying patents they should grant. This is a patent that should not have been granted. It's utility is entirely dependent on a government regulation. Where's the invention in that?
Al Gore and his guys have been very busy laying the groundwork for sweeping policy changes that they can profit from. There is no real value being created here, just a host for a rapacious nest of parasites.
