Monday, February 18, 2013

Washington Post defends billionaire Tom Steyer up for Obama Energy Sec., prep school ed., ex Goldman Sachs, white, big dem. donor: He flew commercial instead of private jet to the climate rally so "he's not flashy"

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2/17/13, "Billionaire has unique role in official Washington: climate change radical," Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin

"(Tom) Steyer had arrived just hours before on the red eye, which he chooses over a private jet to reduce his carbon footprint. He may have built one of the nation’s most successful hedge funds — Farallon Capital Management, named after the waters off San Francisco Bay teeming with great white sharks- 

but he’s not flashy."...

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12/21/12, "Tom Steyer’s Bet is Paying Off," Free Beacon, Matthew Continetti. "Column: Meet one of Barack Obama’s richest green energy cronies."

"When Steyer allocated $30 million for the campaign to support Proposition 39 on Election Day 2012,  

no one seemed to notice.  

Nor did many notice when the measure passed overwhelmingly and thus 

raised taxes on businesses incorporated 

outside California (i.e., businesses other than Farallon Capital Management and the alt-fuel companies in Silicon Valley) and used that money to fund $2.5 billion in … clean energy investments! 

How appropriate then that Steyer announced in October he would step down from his position as head of Farallon so he can 

focus on “giving back.” As secretary of energy he would be giving taxpayer dollars back to the companies in whose future he holds lucrative stakes. He seems finally to have recognized that in America today finance capital is being displaced by political capital, and that 

philanthropy is a business more powerful and indeed more lucrative than running a hedge fund. 

He seems to have recognized that a billionaire who devotes his life to “public service” and “helping the environment” possesses the journalistic equivalent of Monopoly’s “Get of Jail Free” card. He recognized that believing in Barack Obama is a fast track to receiving gifts, and championing America’s “advanced energy economy” means never having to say you’re sorry."



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