Breitbart reporter Steve Milloy has the story (
"The New King Coal: George Soros", 8/17/2015):
"I predicted...that the left wasn't going to kill off the coal industry
so much as it was going to steal it. That prediction is already becoming
true courtesy of billionaire George Soros."
"U.S. Securities and Exchange Act filings indicate that Soros has
purchased an initial 1 million shares of Peabody Energy and 553,200
shares of Arch Coal, the two largest publicly traded U.S. coal
companies. As pointed out last week, both companies have been driven
perilously close to bankruptcy by the combination of President Obama's
'war on coal' and inexpensive natural gas brought on by the
hydrofracturing revolution."
"Less than a year ago the Soros' Climate Policy Initiative issued a
major report concluding that the world could save $1.8 trillion over the
next two decades by transitioning away from coal. The report referred
to coal reserves as 'stranded assets' that were losing value as they
were no longer needed...What a difference a few months makes, especially
when those months have seen coal company stocks fall to fire sale
prices..."
Instead of the ever-popular pump and dump strategy for making money,
this is dump and then pump. Make coal look worthless, then buy it up.
Then take the stock price up.
The Climate Change tap dance features all sorts of $$ deals, and as yet
the really huge ones are lurking behind the curtain. In the meantime,
we can see a few of the out-front hustles.
~~~
There is the case of Tom Steyer, hedge-fund billionaire. Alatheia Larsen of newsbusters has that story (
"Green Billionaire Tom Steyer, Squeezing Climate Panic for Profit", 7/10/15):
"Tom Steyer's concern for the environment and almost religious devotion
to promoting green energy appear to be targeting another kind of
green...Alternative Energy wasn't always Steyer's focus. He only began
attacking coal power in 2011...Meanwhile in Australia, the hedge fund
that Steyer started and ran until at least 2013, Farallon Capital
Management, was busy finalizing a transaction to create what is on track
to become one of Australia's largest coal mining operations. This deal
increased coal production in Australia by a staggering 70 million
tons...Steyer divested from Farallon in 2014 after saying that he could
not reconcile it with his current personal beliefs about climate change.
Also, conveniently after he had made a fortune."
Nice work if he could get it, and he could.
~~~
Several years ago, I wrote a piece about Al Gore's good fortune as a climate-change god.
Here is an excerpt:
In 2001, Al Gore was worth less than $2 million. Now, in 2012, it's estimated he's locked up a nice neat $100 million.
How did he do it? Well, he invested in 14 green companies, who inhaled -
via loans, grants and tax relief - somewhere in the neighborhood of
$2.5 billion from the federal government to go greener.
Therefore, Gore's investments paid off, because the government was
providing massive cash backup to those companies. It's nice to have
federal friends in high places.
For example, Gore's investment firm at one point held 4.2 million shares
of an outfit called Iberdrola Renovables, which was building 20 wind
farms across the United States.
Iberdrola was blessed with $1.5 billion from the federal government for
the work which, by its own admission, saved its corporate financial
bacon. Every little bit helps.
Then there was a company called Johnson Controls. It makes batteries,
including those for electric cars. Gore's investment company, Generation
Investment Management (GIM), doubled its holdings in Johnson Controls
in 2008, when shares cost as little $9 a share. GIM sold when shares
cost $21 to $26 - before the market for electric-car batteries fell on
its head.
For a while, the going was good. To make it go good, Johnson Controls
had been bolstered by $299 million dropped at its doorstep by the
Administration of President Barack Obama.
On the side, Gore has been giving speeches on the end of life as we know
it on planet Earth, for as much as $175,000 a pop. (It isn't really on
the side. Gore is constantly on the move from conference to conference,
spewing jet fumes in his wake.) Those lecture fees can add up.
---end excerpt---
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