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February 28, 2007
Updated: Gore piece full of holes
To update Kevin's story from yesterday about the Tennessee group that went after Gore's energy use, it seems the group didn't quite have all their facts straight.
You've probably seen the stories, the screaming Drudge headlines, all the "Inconvenient Truth" jokes, because our leading spokesman against greenhouse gases has a much larger electric bill than the average American.Here's the truth, as best as we've been able to read up on the topic. It's a fact that, as the nation's best-known spokesman for energy reduction, Gore could have personally done more, sooner. For example, a New Yorker profile just a couple of years ago said he still drove a gas-guzzling Cadillac.
But the question -- as it always should be in politics -- is, is he doing all that he can now, and the answer appears to be yes. As Gore's electric bill (and yes, it's public record -- strange but true) shows, he and Tipper voluntarily pay the higher cost for something called Green Power Switch, which uses more expensive energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power. He purchases offsets for carbon fuel use.
Yes, he uses more electricity than you or me, but the house of this former Vice President and his wife has offices and staffers and security needs that we don't have either. His car today is an SUV, but it's also a hybrid.
So at the end of the day, what does it all mean? When you peel away all the layers, it means that when it comes to greenhouse gases and climate change -- one of the three great interlocking issues of our time, along with Peak Oil and war and peace in the oil-producing regions -- that the conservative movement has absolutely zero to say.
So Kevin's initial post that this was all about demagoguery was spot on.
Posted by Carla at February 28, 2007 07:21 PM
