Posted on 04/28/2010 1:00:47 AM PDT by RogerFGay
Surprising documents made available to this author reveal that Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi has a huge financial stake in companies likely to profit from the Obama administrations green policies.
Zoi, who left her position as CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection founded by Al Gore to serve as assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, now manages billions in green jobs funding. But the disclosure documents show that Zoi not only is in a position to affect the fortunes of her previous employer, ex-Vice President Al Gore, but that she herself has large holdings in two firms that could directly profit from policies proposed by the Department of Energy.
Al Gore sidekick Cathy Zoi is now Obama's Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Among Zois holdings are shares in Serious Materials, Inc., the previously sleepy, now bustling, friend of the Obama White House whose public policy operation is headed by her husband. Between them, Zoi and her husband hold 120,000 shares in Serious Materials, as well as stock options. Reporter John Stossel has already explored what he sees as the crony capitalism implied by Zoi being so able to influence the fortunes of a company to which she is so closely associated.
In addition, the disclosure forms reflect that Zoi holds between $250,000 and $500,000 in founders shares in Landis+Gyr, a Swiss smart meter firm. She also still owns between $15,000 and $50,000 in ordinary shares.
Smart meters, put simply, are electric meters that return information about customer power usage to the power company immediately and allow a power company to control the amount of power a customer can consume. These smart meters are a central component of the Obama administrations plans to reduce electricity consumption as part of the smart grid.
In a rare moment of candor, Obama Energy Czar Carol Browner said to US News & World Report last year: We need to make sure that [e]ventually, we can get to a system where an electric company will be able [sic] to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air conditioner wont operate at its peak, youll still be able to cool your house, but thatll be a savings to the consumer. (emphasis added)
Clearly, DoE funding to encourage the adoption of smart meters would very likely lead to much increased sales by Landis+Gyr and a potential windfall for Zoi. But surely Zoi doesnt participate in the relevant energy efficiency policy?
In fact, as a condition of her employment with the Obama administration, while Ms. Zoi maintained significant security holdings in Serious Materials and Landis+Gyr, she promised to not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that has a direct and predictable effect on the[ir] financial interest without obtaining a waiver first.
But then, if she doesnt participate in decisions that could have a direct and predictable effect on her Landis+Gyr holdings and she doesnt participate in decisions that could have a direct and predictable effect on her holdings in Serious Materials, it seems worth asking in which decisions she can participate.
Doesnt Zois involvement in these issues raise serious ethical or legal issues?
Given her position and the breadth of the decisions and duties from which she would have to recuse herself if someone with the rather glaring conflicts as Ms. Zoi has follows through on her promises to avoid participating in decisions that would impact companies in which she oddly has retained a substantial financial interest what decisions and policies is she participating in? Has she obtained waivers? If so, on what; if not, why not? Re-read her title. Re-review her investments. What, precisely, is she doing on our dime and how come she is permitted to carry such obvious conflicts of interest that either preclude her from working on nearly any matter of substance under her purview, or trigger automatically serious ethical and other considerations? And, what happened to that whole ethical, transparency thing?
Christopher Horner is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Download: Catherine Zoi financial statements
Shocking! Well, thank goodness she’s the only one in the admininstration who’s corrupt and has conflicts of interest...
funnel..........audit the fed
Zoi and her husband may also be reaping money from the “Stimulus” grants going to the vendors of these “smart meters.” Al Gore, by coincidence, owns a stake in the company contracted to do the communications software for these system. From November 2009 NYT:
[. . .Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Mr. (Al)Gores firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valleys top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called smart meters in homes and businesses. . .Gore. . .decided to back the company, and in gratitude Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers.
[The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts. Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. (Al)Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years. . .]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2501042/posts
Guilty!!!
We have such patriots among us.
“Paging algore... paging algore... Please pick up the white courtesy phone. Someone is cutting in on you profits.”
Move along now, nothing to see here. This administration is as white as new driven snow in both intent and motive and you can’t prove they did anything wrong anyway so why bother. /extreme sarcasm
Chicago Climate Exchange will take BILLIONS and BILLIONS out of people’s pockets to go to Goldman Sachs and all the rest og Obama’s Cronies!!!
The only way these things could be called smart meters is if they are allowed to be installed by dumb customers.
Who needs rationing boxes? What’s next, bread on alternate Tuesdays?
The most corrupt, repellant, and criminal administration in our history. But the truth about them continues to write Repub election ads for this fall.
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