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Articles by James Gerken

James Gerken is the green editor at The Huffington Post.

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It's all good.

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A recent 60 Minutes segment is drawing sharp criticism for its pessimistic take on the green technology sector, which questioned whether cleantech has become a “dirty word.”

“The Cleantech Crash,” which aired Jan. 5 and can be watched above, argues that renewable energy and other types of clean technology are a dying industry. Critics have called the segment a “hit job,” a “debacle,” an “about face” and even “Dumb & Dumber Part 3.”

One of the biggest issues with the segment, critics charge, is that it conflated the Silicon Valley cleantech venture capital scene with the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for renewable energy.

Climate Progress’ Joe Romm contends that CBS missed the point by focusing on the failure rate of private-sector startups and “[failed] to understand that the successes more than pay for the failures.” It’s wor... Read more

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