RED HERRING | Khosla: Cost is Bottom Line for Energy

"At a discussion about solar policy held by Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco on Thursday, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said low cost is the bottom line for making clean-energy technologies successful.

“Growth will never be sacrificed for the environment,” he said, in a press conference before the panel. “I don’t agree with it, but there it is.”

The realistic way to take a significant bite out of global warming is to focus on technologies that can compete on price, he said at the panel. That’s not to say Mr. Khosla doesn’t believe in government involvement. Mr. Khosla supported California’s Proposition 87 last year, which would have taxed oil companies and spent the money on clean-energy research.

But the solution is not to force companies to go clean with new laws, he said. “We should make it so they want to do x or y because it’s something that’s in their interest,” he said."