Kleiner, Perkins says carbon tax would transform renewables industry “overnight”

In California, a partner of legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins said that the establishment of a carbon tax is the catalyst that would transform the renewable energy industry “overnight”. John Denniston told Reuters that carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems for emissions have led to a rapid pace of growth for the renewables industry in other countries, including the rapid development of wind and solar industries.

The company has invested in 30 renewable energy projects including the cellulosic ethanol venture Mascoma, and hybrid auto technology company Fisker Automotive.

Kleiner, Perkins counts Al Gore, the leading carbon tax proponent in the US, among its directors. Gore’s solution to the global energy crisis, a carbon tax, takes a different form than the typical emissions cap, and cap-and-trade system. The former Vice President does favor cap-and-trade, but he also advocates the complete dismantling of the employment tax system in favor of carbon taxes. His remedy: to shift the tax burden from employers to polluters . The remedy has not been endorsed by any of the candidates running for the Presidency in 2008.

“And most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon,” he has said, “with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis.”

As a practical matter, his scheme is not attracting support at this time, but he gave an impassioned addresses in support of his proposals to both the UN Conference on Climate Change at Bali and the Nobel Prize Lectures. In his Nobel lecture, he said “We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource.”

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