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www.e2.org |
May 9, 2007
Members of the U.S. Congress
Officials of the U.S. Federal Administration
Washington, DC
RE: Venture Capitalists and Investors Support Mandatory Carbon Caps
Dear Members of Congress and the Administration:
As leaders in the American venture capital and investment community we urge the federal government to enact comprehensive federal policies to reduce global warming pollution on the scale and timeframe necessary to avoid the economic disruption threatened by climate change.
The United States' lack of carbon policy is compromising the nation's security, competitiveness, and economic growth. Without federal leadership to reduce national carbon emissions, American businesses continue to make long-term capital investments that commit the U.S. to petroleum-based fuels and other high-carbon energy sources, placing those companies at increasing regulatory peril, and exposing the U.S. to expanding geopolitical risk. Adding to our economic vulnerability, other nations are moving ahead of the U.S. in developing products and services that reduce carbon emissions.
The United States should be in the vanguard of the new global market for low-carbon, alternative technologies. Our industries are second to none in developing advanced products when the market conditions reward these investments. A properly structured federal carbon cap program will enhance economic certainty in a rapidly evolving, carbon-conscious global marketplace by creating a market for renewable homegrown fuels and advanced technologies and promoting innovation, competitiveness, and growth in the clean technology, manufacturing and energy sectors.
As investors, we support a federal policy framework that includes the following:
- A Mandatory Long-term Declining Carbon Cap - A federal program should cap emissions of global warming pollutants at current levels within five years and steadily reduce the cap to 60-80 percent below current levels by 2050. This will deliver the emission reductions that scientists currently believe are necessary and will provide businesses with the certainty needed to make large capital investments in cleaner facilities and technology innovations.
- Economy-wide Coverage - At a minimum, a federal emissions cap should cover heat-trapping pollutants from all large stationary sources and the carbon content of transportation and heating fuels at the point of wholesale distribution (i.e. oil refineries and natural gas distribution companies).
- Allowance Trading - Entities within capped sectors should be allowed to buy and sell allowances in order to encourage them to pursue all cost-effective strategies to reduce emissions.
- Limited Use of Offsets - The electric and transportation sectors account for 70 percent of current U.S. global warming pollution, and almost all of the projected growth. We cannot meet our long-term reduction goals if firms in these sectors avoid making transformative investments in new technologies by making unlimited use of offset projects in other sectors or other countries. Even a limited offsets program must adopt standards to ensure that reductions are real, surplus, verifiable and permanent.
The United States has a history of regarding challenge as opportunity, analyzing the facts, encouraging decisive action and applying our best minds to the task at hand. We have led the world in innovation in the pharmaceutical, chemical, bio, nano and information technology industries and are poised to do it again in cleantech.
We urge Congress to take swift and strategic action to introduce mandatory carbon caps, enhancing America's security, encouraging business innovation, and promoting U.S. leadership in 21st century clean technologies.
Sincerely, |
Daniel Abbasi (Connecticut)
Jim Anderson
Foundation Capital
Greer Arthur
G.M. Arthur and Company LLC
Greg Avis (California)
Founding Managing Partner, Summit Partners
Jay Baldwin (Massachusetts)
Partner, Wind River Capital Partners, LLC
Josh Becker (California)
New Cycle Capital
Ron Bernal (Colorado)
Partner, Sequel Venture Partners
Tony Bernhardt, PhD (California)
Northern California Director, Environmental Entrepreneurs
Eric Bowen (California)
Executive Director, Business Development & Legal Affairs, Renewable Energy Group
Scott Bryan
Director of Operations, Imagine H2O
Diane Christensen (California)
President, Manzanita Management Corp
Ronald Chwang
iD Ventures America
Deborah Cincotta (California)
Writer
Tom Cole (California)
CEO, Consuming, Inc.
Bud Colligan
Accel Partners
Christine Comaford (California)
Venture Partner, Novus Ventures
Michael Cuddehe (New York)
President, Seven Trust Advisors
Andrew Currie (Colorado)
Investor, Active Minds LLC
John Cusack
Financial Services Risk Management, Maplecroft Limited
Bo Cutter
Warburg Pincus LLC
John Dean
Tuputele Ventures
Reid Dennis (California)
Managing Director, Institutional Venture Partners
Russell Diamond (New York)
West Side Advisors
Mike Dierks (California)
Chief Operating Officer, Crossbow Technology Inc.
Mark Donohue
Founding Partner, Expansion Capital Partners, LLC
Ted Driscoll (California)
Director, Digital Healthcare Lead, Claremont Creek Ventures
Ira Ehrenpreis (California)
General Partner, Technology Partners
Abbas El Gamal
Stanford University
Bob Epstein (California)
Co-founder, Sybase, New Resource Bank, Environmental Entrepreneurs
Chris Eyre (California)
Managing Director, Legacy Venture
Irwin Federman
U.S. Venture Partners
Lynn Feintech (California)
Tod Francis (California)
Founding Partner, Shasta Ventures
Michio Fujimura
Managing Director, ATA Ventures
Andy Funk (California)
Managing Director, Funk Ventures
Greg Gallo (California)
Partner, DLA Piper US LLP
Julius Genachowski (District of Columbia)
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
| Dan Goldman (Massachusetts)
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Clean Energy Venture Group
Ken Goldsholl (California)
CEO, x.o.ware, Inc.
Bob Goodof (Massachusetts)
Vice President, Loomis Sayles & Company LLP
Peter Grubstein (California)
NGEN Partners, LLC
Garrett Gruener (California)
Co-founder and Director, Alta Partners
Russell Hall (California)
Managing Director, Legacy Venture
Bob Hambrecht (California)
Self-Employed
John Harper (Massachusetts)
Principal, Birch Tree Capital, LLC
Jim Heath (New Mexico)
Founding General Partner, Entegrity Partners, LP
Grant Heidrich
Mayfield Fund
James Higgins (California)
Partner, Lakeside Enterprises
Jill Tate Higgins (California)
General Partner, Lakeside Enterprises
Russell Hirsch
Managing Director, Prospect Venture Partners
Robert Hoguet (New York)
Consultant, Self Employed
Wende Hutton
Venture Partner, Canaan Partners
Raj Kapoor
Mayfield Fund
Vinod Khosla (California)
Khosla Ventures
Josh Lamstein (New York)
Director, GF Capital Management & Advisors LLC
Laura Lauder (California)
Lauder Partners
Jeff Lawrence (California)
Founder, President and CEO, Clivia Systems Inc.
Paul Lego (California)
Virage Inc.
Tony Lent (New York)
Managing Director, Wolfensohn Fund Management
Pascal Levensohn
Founder and Managing Director, Levensohn Venture Partners
Mark Levin
Third Rock Ventures
Mike Levinthal (California)
General Partner, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners
Florence W. Liddell (New York)
Environmental Advocate
David Liddle (California)
General Partner, USVP
David Link (Colorado)
Peter Liu (California)
Founder and Vice Chairman, New Resource Bank
Joe Mandato
Managing Director, De Novo Ventures
Tim McAdam (California)
Technology Crossover Ventures
Charles McDermott (Massachusetts)
Rockport Capital Partners
Jim McDermott (California)
Managing Partner, U.S. Renewables Group
Kate Mitchell (California)
Managing Partner, Scale Venture Partners
Kathy Murphy (California)
CFO and Administrative Partner, Trinity Ventures
John Murray
Technology Venture Partners
| Gib Myers (California)
Partner Emeritus, Mayfield Fund and Founder/board of the Entrepreneurs Foundation
Patricia Nakache (California)
General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Larry Orr (California)
Managing Partner, Trinity Ventures
Alex Osadzinski (North Carolina)
Debu Pal
Tallwood Venture Capital
Vic Parker (California)
Managing Director
Sunil Paul (California)
Co-Founder, Managing Director, Spring Ventures
Ethan Podell (New York)
President, Babel Networks Limited
Ariel Poler
Odeo Inc.
Ruthann Quindlen (California)
Institutional Venture Partners
Eric Ramberg (California)
Carr & Ferrell, LLP
Zeb Rice (California)
Partner, Angeleno Group
David Rosenstein (California)
President, Intex Solutions
David Roux
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Silver Lake Partners
Tedd Saunders (Massachusetts)
Co-Owner, The Saunders Hotel Group
Paul Sellew (Massachusetts)
CEO, Harvest Power
Joel Serface (Colorado)
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Clean Range Ventures
Gordon Smythe
Propel Partners, LLC
Lee Stein (California)
Chairman and CEO, Virtual Group, LLC
Pete Thomas
Managing Director, ATA Ventures
L. S. Thorne (Connecticut)
Bill Unger (California)
Partner Emeritus, Mayfield Fund
Chris Vargas (California)
Founder, Cleantech Circle LLC
Sanjay Vaswani
Center for Corporate Innovation Inc.
Fred Wang (California)
General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Jay Watkins
Managing Director, De Novo Ventures
Sara Weinheimer (New York)
Managing Partner, Verde Venture Partners
Joy Weiss
President and CEO, Dust Networks
Alexa Willson (New York)
Principal, Bessemer Trust
Erik Wohlgemuth (Oregon)
COO, Future 500
Ion Yadigaroglu (California)
Managing Partner, Capricorn Investment Group
Syrus Ziai
CEO, Qspeed Semiconductor
Paul Zorner (California)
Chairman, Kuehnle AgroSystems
| 106 members
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