Branson: Behind the Mask by Tom Bower Read Free Book Online Page B

a tick for American farmers profiting by selling corn to American biofuel manufacturers, and a tick for reducing carbon emissions. Above all, political resistance would be minimal because Americans could still drive their big cars.
    Clinton’s advocacy of ethanol was not entirely philanthropic. ‘Clean technology’ and ‘green’ politics provided a profitable answer to those preaching about ‘peak oil’. In their scenario, the world’s oil supplies were in permanent decline, leading to a future shortage and an irreversible rise in prices. Clinton’s contribution to the debate was called ‘big-footing’. His commitment tilted more to mythology than reality – but he intended to profit from the vogue.
    Since 2002, Clinton had been a paid adviser to Ron Burkle, a Californian who had earned at least $3 billion from supermarkets and was now seeking other investments and political leverage. At Clinton’s behest, Burkle’s company, Yucaipa, had invested in a manufacturer of ethanol from sugar cane. The company’s owner was Vinod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley before selling it for over $1 billion. He was also an early investor in Amazon and Google. Like many other dotcom billionaires, Khosla foresaw renewable fuels as the next multi-billion fortune-maker. ‘We need to declare war on oil,’ he said, advocating renewables as the ‘mainstream solution’ to replace 80 per cent of oil-based energy. If the world failed to heed his prediction, he warned, ‘the planet is history the way we know it today’. Powered by his convincing salesmanship, Khosla had become a friend, political ally and commercial partner of Burkle, Gore and Clinton. Together, the ‘ethanolites’ were promoting the ‘drop-in solution’ to potential investors: ethanol was easy to produce, easy to mix with petrol and, with generous government subsidies, delivered guaranteed profits.
    Branson was introduced to Khosla by the organisers of the Climate Group. Branson’s endorsement of ethanol, the campaigners calculated, would electrify their cause. ‘We need to dispel the notion that we must make a choice between saving the planet and saving money,’ Khosla told him. ‘We must find solutions which are good for the environment and also profitable.’ For Branson, focused on money since his late teens – as he admitted, his agenda ‘was always 99.5 per cent business’ – ‘green’ was an ideal vehicle for new profits. His introduction to Khosla would work out better than the Climate Group had expected.
    The celebrities’ endorsement of ethanol aroused Branson’s curiosity. His interest was further bumped up by Governor Schwarzenegger’s decree that 20 per cent of all ethanol consumed in California should, by 2010, be produced in the stateitself. Khosla was happy to oblige. Cilion, his new corporation, planned to build nine factories to produce ethanol from corn. The first three would be built in California. ‘I am confident’, said Khosla, ‘that Cilion will be able to produce all of the ethanol that the Governor has ordered for 2010.’ Aggrieved at having missed out on the internet billions, Branson was impressed by Khosla’s record. His success echoed that of Bill Gates, who had already invested $78 million in an ethanol company, albeit by buying preference shares, which minimised his risk. Persuaded by Khosla and by the same bankers who had profited from the dotcom era that ethanol was a safe bet, Branson’s reservations about risking his own money gradually receded. Mixing in the firmament of political superstars and billionaires such as Clinton, Schwarzenegger, Gore, Burkle and Khosla was hooking him. He trusted that Khosla’s record as a venture capitalist would help earn huge profits for Virgin from green technology, and relied on Clinton as the promoter.
    He was invited to join the Green Rush, financed by businesses known as ‘watermelons’ – green on the outside and red capitalist within. He