Monday, February 26, 2007

How’s This for an “Inconvenient Truth”?

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a nonprofit research organization committed to free market solutions, reported that Al Gore’s Nashville mansion (20 rooms, 8 bathrooms) consumes more electricity monthly than the average American household uses in a year. The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, and Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—over 20 times the national average.

Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month to 18,400 kWh per month.

4 comments:

Derek said...

It is well known that each year Al and Tipper Gore purchase carbon emission licenses to balance out their own contribution to global warming. Can the "Tennessee Center for Policy Research" say the same? So who is the real hypocrite?

By the way, Dad, when you blog personal attacks on public figures, I suggest (1) Linking to the original attack, and not to Drudge or NewsMax or any other right-wing apparatchik version of the same; (2) Doing a modicum of your own research (google? wikipedia?) to verify the truth of the attack; and (3) Providing some summary of the attacker's bona fides, for example, how long has this "Tennessee Center for Policy Research" been around, do they have a known agenda, and who provides their funding (Exxon-Mobil?).

In the absence of such supporting evidence, I will be forced to conclude that you are simply echoing the daily agenda of the right-wing attack machine, which finds character assassination easier and more fun than engaging in the hard work of making America just, wealthy, and strong.

Aloha,
Derek

Galen Fox said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Galen Fox said...

Gulp.

According to your source, Derek, Gore only purchases carbon offsets for his jet aircraft travel.

Nevertheless, assuming he also offsets his home energy consumption, and I do, then your point is well-taken. If Gore is offsetting his energy use, then he is free to live in his global-warming-generating mansion. Let's keep in mind the principle of trade-offs as we move forward on global warming.

I don't appreciate the ad hominem attack on my source, since the information is sound. If you are in fact questioning the statistics on Gore's energy use, then I stand corrected.

The more we trade in facts, and the less in ad hominem attacks, the better, I feel.

Gary Larsen said...

From what you posted, and the way it is done, I sense you are trying to say Gore is hypocritical, preaching conservation and doing otherwise. I agree, it certainly might look that way, but to what point? One might just as well point to Bush, exhorting the troops to serve their country when he sat out the war derelict from even safe National Guard duty. (We were not sending the Guard to VN then if I recall.) The facts are probably correct, whether or not each is a hypocrite I do not know. But to focus on that aspect, when the issue is global warming (or the war in Iraq) is to miss the critical for the sensational.