My notes from a panel held this evening at the Museum of American Finance in NYC:
Finance, Energy & the Environment: Changing Markets & Opportunities
April 24, 2008
Museum of American Finance, Wall Street, NYC
Moderator:
Myron Kandel, founding financial editor at CNN
Panelists:
Pete Cartwright, CEO, Advanced Power Projects, Inc. Works on technology to reduce ghgs and other pollutants.
Daniel Abbasi, MissionPoint Capital Partners, head of regulatory and public policy research. "Financing transition to carbon free economy."
Michael Molnar: VP at Goldman, Sachs, responsible for Alt. energy and Coal sectors in the Energy & Materials Equity Research Business Unit
Carl Pope, President, Sierra Club, called the most influential environmental organization in the country
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MK: At web site of just about every major company, you find 'green' & 'environment' all over the place. Just for show, or transformative moment?
CP: Doesn't tell you anything. You have to go beyond those words, look for "high-performance" and "innovative" -- pace at which they're innovating is the true indicator of how green they really are. New things coming to market are almost inevitably greener and more efficient than what came before.
Not much lying out there but a lot of deception. If the flower is backed up with facts, they're probably true. If it's backed up with fluff, then there probably are no facts behind the flower.
DA: Mentioned 'energy literacy'. Team includes tech and policy people, fundamentally business builders. Energy team comes from GE, Swiss Re, Keyspan, EPA, etc. Two convictions: cc is the most severe foreseeable risk facing humanity. Mitigating it is one of the greatest investment opportunities we've ever seen.
Was also at WRI, and an assoc. dean at Yale School of Env.
PC: Been in energy biz over 50 yrs. Funding sources for projects he's worked on include gov't, stock and bond markets, venture capital, banks. Thermo nuke, geothermal, gas turbines, renewables including solar, wind, biomass. Want to look at current market, find ways to enter, intro tech that will generate electricity in eco-friendly and profitable way. One tech -- improves performance of gas turbine power plants, and reduces ghgs.
Particularly compelling to him: wind, biofuels.
MM: His work covers publicly traded stocks in coal mining companies, also alt energy -- some solar, fuel cells, coal tech, smart grid and demand response. [Reads his disclosure statement.]
CP: Sierra Club is 120 yrs old, founded in Calif. to protect Sierra Nevada. In 1970 began to make major efforts on pollution and energy. Core competencies that we empower citizen activists all over the US to get involved protecting the environment, conservation.
Transition: when 2.5 yrs ago we asked grassroots, what next, they said: deal with climate and energy. So we've spent last 2.5 yrs dealing with global warming and energy. Conclusion we've reached: We've spent 115 yrs as an org that got good at stopping really bad things. With global warming, it's not enough: have to get good at making good things happen quickly. Now our job is to help the new energy economy be born both smarter and faster that it otherwise might be.
MK: Michael, you're nitty gritty, analyzing companies that exist. What are you finding?