Word has it that Hillary Clinton will be giving a keynote address at the Cleantech Venture Forum VIII in Washington, D.C., on October 25th. AOL founder Steve Case, who launched his own D.C.-based investment firm Revolution LLC in April, is also expected to attend the conference. Increasingly I’m hearing about enterpreneurs and VCs who made it big during the dot-com boom beginning to shift their attention to cleantech investments. Part of the allure is what many call the double bottom line — that is, the financial and environmental opportunities of many emerging technologies and services.

It’s the ultimate combination of making money and feeling good about it. I’m hoping to make it down to the Cleantech forum this month and report on some of the events, so stay tuned.

Wired.com has a story today talking about two of the first major offshore wind power projects in the United States and the challenges they face from the usual crew of SUV-driving environmentalists — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who want everything as long as it’s not in their backyard. It’s funny, this group usually cites the danger to birds and marine habitat — which studies have shown is minimal. Posing as environmentalists, what they really don’t like is the aesthetics of wind turbines. To be fair, many environmental groups support these projects because they realize the alternatives — nuclear, coal, and even natural gas — are much worse and that it’s silly to argue about a subjective thing like aesthetics when you’ve got issues like climate change and global warming to deal with.

Again, the R.F. Kennedy Jr. clan would rather talk about the small local impact on birds rather than tackle the larger impact that global warming is having on wildlife and marine life everywhere on the planet. The hypocrisy is amazing. David Suzuki articulated his frustration with these people in a magazine article back in April. See this earlier post.

Both the Globe and Mail and National Post today had articles taking a look at the soaring stock price of ATS Automation and the reason behind it: speculation of the spinoff of its solar group.

Visitors to this blog will know that I’ve had several postings (here, here and here) over the past few months on the likelihood of ATS publicly spinning off its solar group, which includes Photowatt and Spheral Solar. Much of my own opinion has come from watching Cypress Semiconductor pursue an IPO of its SunPower unit, but also from events in Europe and my discussions with analyst MacMurray Whale at Sprott Securities, who has been way ahead of his peers on covering this issue.

The coverage today in the Globe and Post were prompted by a report from Raymond James analyst Frederic Bastien and other analysts who are catching up to Whale’s own analysis. There’s also interest because ATS’s shares have hit a 52-week high on spinoff speculation.

Not surprisingly, the Post – some of whose columnists still deny global warming is a problem — downplays the enthusiasm in solar companies and stocks, referring to their “bloated valuations” and temporary “brush with fame.”

“So what shall become of solar stocks once their latest brush with fame subsides?” asks reporter Keith Kalawsky. “The technology is environmentally friendly and might make a decent business someday, but the valuations of these stocks are prone to polluting your portfolio.”

Despite the nice play on words, I’m curious about the certainty in his comments. He goes on to compare the solar craze with the rise and fall of fuel cell stocks, but this is like comparing apples to oranges: fuel cells are still in an expensive R&D phase and nowhere near commercial reality (as my previous post shows), whereas solar is proven, is selling like gangbusters in Europe, Asia and some U.S. states, and is becoming more efficient by the day. How is a market experiencing excess demand, in an supportive policy environment where all countries are exploring renewable alternatives, a risky business destined to fall?

Kalawsky goes on: “Considering the negatives and the heady valuations of solar companies, it looks like the shorts are going to have a field day once the current obsession with alternative energy inevitably wanes.”

Obsession? Inevitably wanes? Yah, and global warming isn’t a problem, despite dramatic satellite photos of rapidly shrinking ice caps.