The government is putting part of its $787 billion stimulus package into alternative energy and improving the infrastructure of the energy grid. Private foundations have started to put money into green energy initiatives in underdeveloped nations.
Leave it to billionaire George Soros to try to look good supporting alternative energy while planning to make money at the same time. Soros says he will invest $1 billion in clean-energy technology and donate $100 million to an environmental advisory group to aid policymakers.
Bloomberg says George Soros will screen his investments, saying, “They should be profitable but should also actually make a contribution to solving the problem.”
The Soros approach may seem less than charitable, but it may be the right one. Government investments in green energy are hard to track and, like all federal programs, subject to abuse. Contributions to small alternative energy intiatives abroad may simply be too modest to solve any significant problems and the resources for developing alternative energy technology in nation’s without large advanced science communities may be a waste.
Soros is taking a rigorous approach that may actually work. He is willing to put up extensive amounts of capital for alternative energy projects, but he expects them to be viable. And, if they are financially viable, the odds that they will be replicated and grow is higher than it is with programs that seek to do good without a return.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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