World Economic Forum

For several years now, we’ve been making the case that the clean energy industry has to dramatically scale its advocacy investment to meet an aggressive disinformation campaign trained against it by the fossil lobby. We’ve found increasing receptiveness to that message, but we still run into people who think we’ve got tin foil on our heads. The refrain goes something like this: “Who’d want to do such a thing to wind, solar and geothermal power?”

Solazyme Inc. (Nasdaq:SYZM), the South San Francisco-based developer of oils and alternative fuels from genetically modified algae, sold more than 11 million shares, raising $198 million in its long-awaited IPO late last week.  According to a regulatory filing, Company shares surged 15% in their first day of trading on increasing demand for renewable fuel sources and industrial chemicals.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who has worked on climate change policy since his days in government, has signed on as senior advisor to Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, which invests in green technology ventures and research.

Shai Agassi is turning heads with his ideas about electric car networks, especially in Denmark.