Venture Beat tipped me off to an interview with former state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides in which he announces he’s raising a venture fund. The fund will be based in Sacramento and will focus on environmental technology with some real estate investments.

Angelides’ firm joins numerous other funds that are focused on alternative energy, including Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures. Kholsa was widely criticized for backing an alternative energy ballot measure that would benefit his investments. Khosla responded to critics by pledging to donate any direct profits to charity.

The fund will be raised from numerous sources, says Angelides. VentureBeat speculates that California’s pension funds are likely to invest as Angelides has previously served on their boards.

At last week’s dinner we were talking about the realities of starting a company in Sacramento and getting outside investment. I’d recently seen a chart on Paul Kedrosky’s blog that shows investment by locale with the SF Bay Area getting a whopping 39% of investment dollars and Southern California and New England tied for second with 10% each.  read more »