Goldman Sachs Buys Into Carbon Offsets - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Goldman Sachs has recently bought pieces of two carbon-offset companies, in the latest sign of investment banks’ interest in the area.

On Monday E+Co, a company focused on bringing clean power to developing countries, announced that Goldman had purchased a majority of its carbon-offsets portfolio. In late October, Goldman took a minority stake in BlueSource, which is more focused on the tiny U.S. offsets market, and plans to market BlueSource offsets to clients.
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Goldman’s purchases are only the latest demonstration of investment banks’ interest in the offsets field. Last year, Credit Suisse invested 44 million euros in EcoSecurities, an Ireland-based offsets firm. In March, JP Morgan bought ClimateCare, another offsets group. In 2006 Morgan Stanley took a 38 percent stake in MGM International, yet another such firm.
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Not all of the banks’ purchases have worked out for the best. The share price of EcoSecurities has plunged more than 80 percent since June 2007, when Credit Suisse bought in.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » “Fantasy” Cabinet: Gore as Climate Czar, Powell at Education?

US News has an org chart that supposedly floated out of the Obama transition team, showing the short list for each of the Cabinet-level positions in the incoming administration. The above-the-fold news comes from the inclusion of Al Gore as climate-change czar and Caroline Kennedy as a potential UN Ambassador.