Another Day, Another Puff Piece about the Department of Energy

It's a sad day for Journalism. Despite the fact that the USA is experiencing an unprecedented increase in federal government spending as part of a stimulus program, there are no worthy investigative reporters doing ANYTHING AT ALL to tell the story.

Instead, in their infinite Wisdom, the jokers at the WashingtonPost have allowed the federal bureaucrats to write an article about what else? Bureaucrats. Who else could paint such a rosy picture of stimulus spending while quoting Cathy Zoi but not asking about Al Gore's White House lobbying effort recently disclosed?

In the article, Steven Chalk is quoted on the topic of stimulus spending. He says his team's motto is "Spend fast, but spend well." Oh really, Mr. Chalk? How do you go about spending well? What do the processes look like? Who makes the decisions? How are they made? How does your process handle disagreement? What are the key criteria for picking one proposal over another? How many of your choices have been made to firms who haven't made enormous recent campaign donations or spend millions on lobbying? What guidelines protect the American taxpayer from donations to venture capitalists?

EEStor Expands Cedar Park Offices

Thanks to alert TheEEStory.com forum participant, Jay, we now have reason to believe that EEStor is expanding their corporate HQ. According to a permit filed in August, 2009 and issued 8/25/09 to "EE Store, Inc" (sic) the office #110 with 2800 sq ft will be brought into the EEStor domain. Plenty of room for a pick n' place robot named B.

The new space is to the right of the existing EEStor offices (behind the small tree in the photo above).

To discuss this topic and come up with other names for EEStor's robots, visit TheEEStory.com.

If you have trouble with the link, google this: CO-09-03700 Should be 4th link down.

Secret EEStor Patents Not So Secret Any More

Thanks to what appears to possibly be a bit of a slip up on the part of the US Patent & Trademark office, we now know the descriptions of two additional EEStor patent applications. They are:

11/499594 Systems and methods for utility grid power averaging, long term uninterruptible power supply, power line isolation from noise and transients and intelligent power transfer on demand

11/45381 Methods of purifying barium nitrate aqueous solution

The slip up appears to be that the patent examiner did an intranet search on the USPTO network to locate all patents/applications whose inventor name is Richard Weir. He then published the search results to the file wrapper for patent application 11/400,875.

Oddly, these patents were filed before others that have already published which is odd. What is even odder is another patent filed at the same time, 11/400,875 is about to granted based on a recent issue letter. If that happens soon, it means we will have two patents filed at roughly the same time, where one has been granted and the other hasn't even been published yet!

Keep in mind, as I've stated previously, the normal process as I understand it is for a patent to publish 18 months after being filed unless the applicant makes a secrecy request, which would not be possible if World patents are filed. The other possibility is that EEStor's patents are under government secrecy protection.

For those keeping notes. The search was performed 6 August 2007.

Marine's B-day

Happy Birthday, United States Marine Corps! It's fitting to honor this day by recalling an example of why it is celebrated. Enjoy. Here's another.

In Obama Administration a Green Economy Means Lobbyist Interests Get Rich

Anyone familiar with the political connections of VC firm Kleiner Perkins, reasonably assumes that if they go after federal stimulus funds, they will likely get what they want. As we've seen with Fisker Automotive and Silver Spring Networks, Kleiner firms now have won over $1Bil from the Department of Energy or roughly the size of what others have reported to be Kleiner's entire investment in CleanTech. (can anyone say "break even?") But, before you conclude that Kleiner only needs to show up to win these funds, take a note of caution: it turns out that Kleiner Perkins is not the only politically connected CleanTech firm with it's hand out for DOE funds. That's right, even if Kleiner Perkins companies in some cases do not have to compete in a market to win these DOE funds, Kleiner Perkins the VC firm will have to compete for President Obama's money. I'm sorry, I mean Tax Payer Money! (how could I screw that up?)

Competitor #1 to Kleiner's complete domination of DOE stimulus funding: another VC firm called the US Renewable Energy Group. These are the guys that partnered with Cielo Wind Power and The Communist Party of China, I mean bankers in China, to put together a Texas Wind project. It might succeed because have a look at the team trying to pull home the funds (well, tax credits anyway). The US-Reg team reads like a Barak Obama grade school soccer team roster. "Kick it over here, Barak!" Does anyone formerly in politics do anything but seek federal funding any more? Depends on what Dick Cheney is up to these days I guess.

Before the Obama US Reg good ole boys get too celebratory though, they still face steep obstacles...not so much on the merit of their technology or program (a throwback to a market system we used to have) but rather on political momentum. First of all, they have Senator Charles Schumer on their back complaining about their prospects. Senator Schumer has received campaign contributions from Kleiner's John Doerr (to name at least one). So Schumer is upset but not enough to necessarily ding Fisker Automotive for having an investment from an Arab Company on their financial sheets. (google prior blogs about that or search SEC records--you won't find it in a newspaper).

Cathy Zoi & Al Gore

Assume for the moment that Schumer settles down and US-Reg has a fighting chance. Probably not going to happen even in that case because, Al Gore's former Alliance for Climate CEO, Cathy Zoi is the Department of Energy's treasurer of $20Bil in stimulus funds. That's with a B not an M, US-Reg.

Kleiner's John Doerr and the rest of Barak Obama's "outside" Economic Advisors

If you are Al Gore, you don't even have to lobby the DOE to get a buck or two. Why would you? Crazy talk. But the idiots over at the Wall Street Journal asked Gore about this any way. Let me summarize: Gore, did you lobby anyone in the administration for DOE funds? Nope. Ok, good enough. So, it's silly because everyone knows Gore's connections are so tight he doesn't need to lobby. In fact, even when Gore is lobbying for DOE funds it's not even really lobbying really. At least, that's what it seems like considering the recently released White House Visitor's log.

Kleiner's Gore has visited the White House 4 times in 2009 including one visit with Kate Brandt, who is a special assistant to Energy Czar, Carol Browner. Browner made the news recently when she announced several million dollars in DOE funding would go to Kleiner Perkins investment Silver Spring Networks for a project in Browner's home state (see beginning of article). So, you see, US-Reg and Al Gore fans, there's a bit of a but not much of a contest here. And that's good, because there might not even be a problem around which a competition can be organized if the new revelations around the supposedly better understood causes of global warming being tossed around now...causes which include less impact by CO2.

Carol Browner

In case any other Kleiner competitors are out there wondering about their prospects due to doubts raised by this article, there's additional information to show just how tight this little political team is today. I'm going to quote at length from a US News & World report interview of John Doerr:

Has the recession affected what you do?

The answer is profoundly. Were it not for the policies in the stimulus bill, America would be out of the energy business. The capital markets to fund new solar—the capital markets are terrible. What has happened is Congress has said, "We want to see this kind of work funded."

How so?

More secure Department of Energy loan guarantees. There is funding for R&D. I am very optimistic.

Are you optimistic about the long-run?

There has never been a time to be more optimistic than right now. Obama has put together the dream team to work on energy and energy policy. I'm really privileged to be on the outside advising them. If you look at the team, they've got Cathy Zoi [DOE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy], they've got Matt Rogers [a former McKinsey executive and now senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu]. He's creating four investment banks within the Department of Energy—here's $80 billion we want to invest really wisely. There's Carol Browner in the White House. We've got leadership in Congress that understands these matters—Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi. This is an A-Team.

You were tapped for the p resident's economic advisory board back in February. What has your role been?

I think this president has said he is not interested in being trapped inside the echo chamber of Washington, D.C. [Our goal] is to provide outside advice directly to him about what we can do to get our economy going. He's juggling a lot of balls at once. I think he's going to achieve his agenda. I think he's going to make sure this isn't a jobless recovery. I am an American, a grateful kid from St. Louis, and I think we've all got a responsibility to the generations to come to ensure that America is a leader for the planet.

Which brings me back to batteries. Regardlesss of whether or not the Earth is warming and it's caused by humans, the United States needs better energy storage to kick the foreign oil habit. Unproven electric vehicle programs aren't going to get us there. Only better batteries. Yawn.

Photos are linked to original sources.


Note: many people who read an article like this ask, "How much does that cost?" If you're really truly cynical and you discount all human effort outside of pure money changing hands (which is incalculable unless you go by lobbyist fees), then the figure for $1bil in funding may be around $2Mil. At least, that's how one might read the Wall Street Journal's numbers. I'm not cynical like you though.

GO EESTOR!!!

EEStor's Carl Nelson Flexes Muscles

EEStor's 80 Yr Old Carl Nelson after a recent workout. (accuracy of photo not guaranteed)

Thanks to an alert tavern owner in Thailand known only as Mark, we learned yesterday that EEStor's principle co-inventor, Carl Nelson, former colleague of MIT's Arthur Von Hippel, is busy battling away with the United States Patent & Trademark office for EEStor's claims. In a letter dated November 6, 2009, Nelson continues to press for the EEStor discovery of "a primary particle having an unexpectedly high relevative permittivity with low variance within the temperature range of -55C and 125C and having desirable breakdown voltage above and beyond what those idiots like Y_Po and EE-Tom think it should be." Elsewhere, Nelson states that the "primary particles of composition modified barium titanate [have a] dielectric constant of greater than 33,000 and high break down voltagae of greater than 6000V. Or in other words, plenty of power to kick any other capacitor's ass. Bring it."

In a rare follow up interview, Nelson reflected on EEStor's relative strength and power in relation to all other would be competitors, "as far as energy storage is concerned, it's us vs a bunch of puny 12yr old boys. We will dominate the world with our genuinely ULTRA capacitors and enjoy life feasting on our victory." (editor's note: accuracy of quote similar to photo).

So, there you have it. Carl Nelson, getting a bit feisty and flexing his muscles. What else would you expect the co-inventor of the 21st century's greatest technological wonder?

Note: the photo and silly quotes are not real.

Is Al Gore lying to Charlie Rose about Energy Storage?

Charlie Rose is a sort of journalist well known for his interviews of interesting people. He recently interviewed Al Gore on November 4, 2009. This is interesting to eestorians because Charlie Rose is a limited partner at Kleiner Perkins. That means he gives his money to Kleiner partners who then invest it in companies like EEStor. As we know from SEC records, Kleiner invested $3mil in EEStor. Based on the valuation of Zenn Motor Company and Dick Weir's statement that KPCB owns "twenty something percent" of EEStor, that $3Mil is now worth $300Mil even before EEStor has revealed 3rd party validation of their claims. That is a 100X return on investment and if you own shares in a Kleiner fund, you may have access to information about investments that show that much progress. Based on how Kleiner loves to tout it's success, it's very likely you do have access to that information, if you are an investor like Charlie Rose. Naturally, any time you talk with one of the key partners, you might want to inquire how your dollars are performing with that stupendous return they keep mentioning when asking you for further investment in new funds. (can you imagine looking at the EEStor returns to date and having Kleiner report something like 'Oh, that? You won't have access to any of it. We made such a silly mistake there. Every time

I'm asked about that, I wish I could find a bag for my head.' Yeah right!)

Enter the interview with Al Gore.

As you see in the above youtube video, Al Gore starts pontificating about solar technology and then abruptly turns to the "extremely important" topic of energy storage. Rose then inquires not about where we are in terms of energy storage development but rather, oddly, about "where are we in terms of dramatic developments in battery capacity?" Such wording makes one want to ask Charlie Rose the same question. Also, notice specifically, how Rose's eyes glare into Gore when he asks the question much as they do when Rose is sipping coffee in his lovely garden on weekend mornings while he thumbs through his financial statements which document what makes his lavish lifestyle possible. (emphasis mine--focus on the glare of truth on Rose's face, almost like if laser beams were x-raying Gore to see what brand of underwear he has on or if it

it made of hemp).

Gore's response is not quick because he is likely hearing the echo of John Doerr saying, "if we bring you on, you can't spill the beans, man." The pace of his voice slows initially--happy he

caught himself.... exactly like someone keeping a secret. Then, we have unusual body gyrations similar to shifting in one's chair. Gore's eyes shift in several directions (note: Gore is a southpaw). It's difficult to interpret all of these movements because what Gore is hiding, in terms of his EEStor knowledge, is not easily drawn out by the question Rose asked. Had it been a more direct question, we might be able to more easily make sense of Gore's shiftiness.

Here's what we do know. KPCB only has one interesting investment in energy storage--that is EEStor. Gore specifically mentions non lithium chemistries. Any genius out there want to show me a non-lithium chemistry that beats lithium? No? Class dismissed then. Conclusion: Al Gore was not fully truthful when he answered Charlie Rose because he knows EEStor is en route. Outside of politics, we sometimes refer to that as lying. Whether or not we can politely call it lying may best be answered by Charlie Rose. Charlie? Charlie? .......Charles! Come to! Stop drooling on your financial statements.

Note: this posting is dedicated to one of my favorite readers who happens to be a family member and who asked me to write more articles such as the one on EEStor's Carl Nelson.

Don't forget to send a tweet to @algore on twitter.

NASA Says No Sale

As previously reported here, NASA internal discussions seemed to indicate that at one point they had acquired EEStor technology. According to follow up correspondence today between a FOIA administrator and Mr. Ambrose, NASA did not ever purchase EEStor technology as Ambrose seemed to indicate in his released email.

The NASA information on EEStor is still under investigation and it would appear that there is definitely more to learn. For example, the six SBIR proposals EEStor supposedly submitted in 2002. Proposals, I can't seem to find in the online NASA database.

Lockheed Ad in Scientific American

Pick up a copy of the November 2009 Scientific American. It has an interesting set of articles about wind, solar and water power source systems. Somewhat interesting was the full page add that Lockheed Martin has on page 3 where they go into detail comparing their new mission as an energy company to the Apollo space mission, a program Lockheed was heavily involved with at the time. They talk about "energy security" as the goal and list energy storage as one of the means.

To my knowledge, Lockheed has no special connection to energy storage other than EEStor Inc., despite what any occasional Lockheed employed lithium researcher might tell you. Sure, Lockheed runs Sandia Labs, but no one is going to make the claim that any lithium ion solution Lockheed is directly working with will provide the means to energy security. No one with a brain that is.

NASA: Do They Own EEStor Tech or Something Else?

So, as predicted, yesterday's NASA revelations have been dissected by few thousand EEstory addicts and the consensus appears to be, what else, extreme uncertainty. :-) While these several thousands continue to orbit around the truth, let's summarize the current mission status. Doubters believe the key correspondence includes reference to generic ultracapacitors as having been purchased while others looking at the context of the discussion, point out that EEStor is the topic of interest in the thread...and want to believe, as I did, that NASA may be in possession of at least some components. I'll accept the plausibility of the doubts registered in discussion and simply say, we await NASA for more answers on this.

In the meantime, there is still very intersting new information in this FOIA. Additional specs, EESU sizes. And probably the most important revelation is that EEStor claimed in writing to NASA that their underlying technology was already "completely" developed, tested and certified. I dont know how many times I have to say it---ALL of the evidence gathered to date means EEStor can only be a scam or real. Anyone who looks at the scam theory with any depth, rejects it. Ergo, EEStor is real.