$2.5 billion in taxpayer funds propel Al Gore into 'the 1% '

When Al Gore left the White House in 2001, he was worth less than $2 million.  Today he is worth over $100 million.

How?

Fourteen so-called "green" companies with ties to Al Gore have pocketed a combined $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds thanks to "green energy" programs pushed by Barack Obama, The Washington Post reports.

Gore’s investments coincided with the government’s largest investment in clean tech. A full 10 percent, estimated at $80 billion to $90 billion, of the 2009 stimulus package was devoted to clean energy.

Like thousands of other companies, those Gore invested in entered the competition for a piece of the pie. (An administration official said more than 80 percent of applicants the first year were turned away.) Several companies in Gore’s portfolio emerged as winners. Of the 11 companies he mentioned in his 2008 slide show, nine received or directly benefited from stimulus or clean energy funding.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee and is a leading critic of clean tech funding, said Gore’s portfolio “is reflective of a disturbing pattern that those closest to the president have been rewarded with billions of taxpayer dollars . . . and benefited from the administration’s green bonanza in the rush to spend stimulus cash.”