Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn questioned Al Gore’s motives regarding his green investment. Indeed, both his environmental commitment and financial activities were scrutinized during a recent Congressional hearing. With the Obama Administration’s proposal for climate change legislation, former Vice President Al Gore was grilled for potential conflicts of interest between his investing activities and his role as uber-advocate for climate change action. GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn – who shares the home state of Tennessee with Al Gore  – questioned his green investments through Kleiner Perkins based on an October 8th, 2008 New York Times’ article.

To avoid all “suspicion” on Al Gore’s green investment, Marsha Blackburn starts by explaining she’s giving Al Gore the opportunity “to kind of clear the air.” Quite surprisingly, it makes her giggle. Al Gore also laughs, but this time AT her when she mentions Kleiner Perkins. Al Gore is a partner at this venerable Silicon Valley  venture capital firm which recently launched a significant investment effort in green tech. The investments made by Kleiner Perkins amount to about a billion dollars in over forty green companies. These investments stand to benefit significantly from the cap-and-trade legislation discussed during the Congressional hearing.

It would be quite short-sighted to call Gore’s commitment to protecting the environment in question? He’s been advising a transition to a green economy for the past 30 years and fighting against global warming for just as long. It seems legitimate for Click here to read more

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For those of you following the uber-cool 3-wheel Aptera, Loic Le Meur of Seesmic.com just shared a little video of marketing guru Seth Godin testing out the Jetsonesque vehicle a few moments ago at the TED conference. An Aptera rep gives a great overview of the technology behind the car. We’ve embedded it here below:

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