The Wall Street Journal s Sept. 26 Google Kills Birds editorial, which refers to the company s investment in the Ivanpah solar project in the Mojave Desert as well as Google s beef with ALEC, has struck a bit of a nerve. (Was it the term avian-cide? Or calling Ivanpah a $2.2 billion bird fryer ?)
On Monday, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt fired back at the WSJ for misguided criticisms with a letter that was published on the company s blog and in the Journal.
The Journal wrongly questions Google s long-standing and very real commitment to sustainability, writes Schmidt. Much of corporate America is buying renewable energy in some form or another, not just to be sustainable, but because it makes business sense, helping companies diversify their power supply, hedge against fuel risks, and support innovation in an increasingly cost-competitive way.
Google and Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation acquired the Wall Street Journal in 2007, have been at each other s throats of late (Europe, privacy, anti-trust, etc.).
