The 463: Inside Tech Policy

Gore & Doerr in 'O7

Okay, it doesn't have the same ring as the old Gore & Doerr in '04 buttons from 1.0 ago. (And, I wish I could have found mine today so I could scan it). But, at least today's version of the partnership is more than symbolic. In the form of a well-written Fortune piece, it was announced that the former Veep and current Nobel Prize winner is joining Doerr's storied venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a full-fledged partner working on greentech investments.

And for this blog, one particularly relevant blurb...

Doerr says Kleiner will hire more experts, but insists that the ability to vet and assist entrepreneurs is more important for venture capitalists than industry experience. And the green field is something of, well, a green field. "You can't hire an expert in the recombinant-DNA industry when there isn't one," he says, making a reference to the similar problem Kleiner successfully faced when it backed Genentech in the 1970s.

Gore can certainly help in this arena by, for example, introducing Kleiner people to top atmospheric scientists or government decision-makers. Policy and politics, his specialties, will have a huge impact on the business of clean technology.

Previous coverage of KP and greentech here and here.

The Green Echo Chamber

There is something dangerous about the way we communicate today. By nature, as humans, we seek those who approve of our opinions and avoid those who we disagree with. With the Internet and other mediums that provide the illusion of contact of contact and interaction with all types of people all over the world, you are lulled into a false sense that there is Massive amounts of energy and support for People Like You. This is a big problem with the contemporary green movement that seems to be Everywhere. But is it? And, even if it is, are the fleeting images of magazine covers and rock concerts deriving change?

This thought is raised and explored in a Guardian (UK) article about the green focused panel at last week's TechNet event. A long excerpt (after jump)...

TechNet Ushers in a New Day for Tech Policy

When the industry CEO group TechNet launched 10 years ago with uber-VC John Doerr, Cisco chief John Chambers and Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale at the helm, I can guarantee you that green technology was the furthest thing from those leaders' minds.  Back then, it was all about shareholder litigation and education reform.

Fast forward five years.  Education is still key, but attention shifts to stock options and broader competitiveness issues.  The big external issue is the reverberations from 9/11.

But, well into the last year and behind the scenes, it became increasingly clear that environmental issues and energy demands will play a significant impact on TechNet's second decade.  The first step along this path was the release today of the group's green tech federal policy recommendations at an event in Washington, DC.  In a nice bit of symmetry and follow-through, both Doerr and Chambers helped unveil the plan at the National Press Club today.

The full report can be downloaded here.  The Green Wombat blog summarizes the recommendations:

Jonathan Schwartz at the Tech Policy Sumnmit

This morning's interview between the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Sun's CEO....

Notes are drastically paraphrased....

A Green State of the Union?

It has long been predicted that President Bush would use this Tuesday's State of the Union to advance a new administration energy policy.  That's likely.  But, what's still not known is how much of a priority Bush will make the issue in both the speech and in follow-up.  And, importantly to many in the tech industry, how much will the policy focus on greentech -- both in alternative energies and tech-driven energy efficiencies.

As long as nearly two years ago, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has suggested that Bush providing a new vision on energy policy and related environmental issues could be his "Nixon in China" moment.  Back in 2005, he said:

Imagine if George Bush did a Nixon-to-China and he brought the coalition together, bringing neocons and geo-greens together.

Now, in January 2007 and months after California Governor Schwarzenegger took the mantle as perhaps the most powerful greentech-friendly U.S. politician, it could be Bush's big moment.  We'll know for sure on Tuesday.

More Doerr

“Dad, I’m scared and angry; Your generation created this problem. What are you going to do to fix it?”

So says John Doerr's daughter in a Time Magazine essay penned by her father that VentureBeat has run in full. The problem she is referring to is global warming.  Doerr notes that California's legislature made big strides forward by passing the "California Global Warming Solutions Act"-- a bill that has the support of Governor Schwarzenegger. Doerr notes that the legislation:

"caps greenhouse gas emissions across all of the meaningful economic sectors. California-where one of eight Americans live -will now require major industrial producers of such gases to reduce emission by 25% by 2020. That means cutting the annual release of carbon dioxide in the state by 174 million metric tons."

Of course, Doerr also points to the role of "clean technologies" to help California meet these goals.  Doerr and other Kleiner Perkins partners have played a major role in shaping the clean tech debate. And, we expect that their leadership will bring others from Silicon Valley to the table as President Bush launches an expected big energy initiative early next year.

In related news...

Bush to Make Major Clean Tech Push?

Just a guess. From the blog of Time Magazine's White House correspondent:

Previewing the final quarter of Bush's presidency, officials disclosed to Time that the Administration is formulating a huge energy initiative designed to "change the whole nature of the discussion" and challenge the g.o.p., Democrats, the oil and electricity industries, and environmentalists. An adviser said Bush's views about global warming have evolved. "Only Nixon could go to China, and only Bush and Cheney--two oilmen--can bring all these parties kicking and screaming to the table," the adviser said."

87+88 = A Review of SV-Backed California Initiatives

When you do an overview of Silicon Valley's involvement in California statewide ballot initiatives past and present, you start with with the VC firm on top of Sand Hill Road.  Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has not only helped launch dozens of the tech industry's most successful companies, the firm is, at most, only one degree of separation from a vast majority of the top tech policy efforts.

One partner, one former partner and one beneficiary of early KP funding are key players behind two of the 13 initiatives on the California November ballot this year.

Mary Anne-Ostrom of the Mercury News looked at this over the weekend from Sacramento...

Two of the boldest electoral initiatives yet to emerge from valley interests will be on November's ballot: NetFlix founder and CEO Reed Hastings and Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr are backing Proposition 88, an unprecedented statewide real estate parcel tax to benefit education; and Vinod Khosla, another Kleiner partner, is behind Proposition 87, a first-ever royalty on oil pumped from California to fund alternative energy ventures.

We've covered former Vinod Khosla's Clean Alternative Energy Act here. (BTW, he's now an "affiliated partner" of Kleiner and runs Khosla Ventures).  It's his first initiative, but the Merc notes that Doerr and Hastings have been down this road before and provides a Valley scorecard on statewide ballot efforts...(plus, our look back after the jump)...

GM: Behind the Curve on Clean Tech

Read Tom Friedman's piece (behind "Select" firewall) in today's New York Times and you'll see his ongoing discussion of why General Motors is now getting their clocks cleaned.  GM responds with lame attempt to counter Friedman's points with a "just the facts" page.  But the truth is, they and all the American car companies could have seen where the world was headed just a few short years ago and prepared for the high gas prices we face now.  They could have done this by doing what Toyota had done: Innovate for a world when hybrids and other fuel efficient choices were needed.  Just the facts:  Give Americans more fuel efficient choices and they will buy them!  Don't keep marketing 9 mpg monster SUVs with $1.99 gas giveaways and then say you are being responsible because you make other high-mileage cars in your fleet that no one buys and you don't market well.

Some here at 463 were working in the U.S. Senate in the mid to late 90s when GM and others killed sensible improvements in average fuel efficiency (CAFE standards) because their short-term profits would be effected.  And now, it's the American consumers who are paying the price.  But we're glad to see innovative companies like IonAmerica, SunPower, Seattle Biodiesel and many others demonstrating commitment to creating new fuels that will no doubt help us out of the whole we're now in.  Keep it up.   

513 Million Reasons for Optimism

From a SiliconBeat post this evening:

"During the first quarter, venture capitalists invested $513 million into companies that have a clean-technology aspect to them, a six-year high, according to the Cleantech Venture Network quarterly report, to be released tomorrow.

"That's a 2.3% increase over the previous quarter, and a significant 52.9 percent jump over the same quarter a year ago. Moreover, a record $357 million was invested into clean-tech energy companies."

All this money is betting the "next Google" will be in clean tech says Kleiner Perkins partner Bill Joy in a new Business Week interview:

[Kleiner partner] John Doerr said to me: "Are we going to have any more Googles?" And I said: "You're damn right we are, because we are at the point of new wealth creation when it comes to green technology." John used to say Google is the greatest legal creation of wealth [ed:  He actually said it was the Internet -- not just Google], and I think the greatest legal creation of wealth today is in the green area -- not just in the U.S. but in the developed world. We have been looking at a lot of things related to new fuels, such as ethanol, fuel cells, advanced battery technology, and new ways of using biotech to make fuels.... There will be an enormous amount of new [green] technology, new wealth, and we are trying to create the Googles, the Microsofts of the new era. [Even] the garbage stream has a high value.

And this is just in the venture world.  Established tech players like Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials and AMD are getting into the clean tech game in a big way, too.  Why?  Sure, some of it comes from being good corporate citizens.  But, mostly, it's just good capitalism.  And, that's the reason for optimism.  If we had to rely on warm fuzzies to save the planet, we would soon be breaking out the 463 windsurf board to make our way down K Street.

Need more proof? Look no further than Wal-Mart -- the epitome of market forces -- and the reaction to their green plan by ultra-ultra liberal Mark Morford at SFGate...(excerpts after the jump)...