Al Gore's Hypocrisy -- His Very Inconvenient Utility Bill

ABC ^

[quesney]

Back home in Tennessee, safely ensconced in his suburban Nashville home, Vice President Al Gore is no doubt basking in the Oscar awarded to "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary he inspired and in which he starred. But a local free-market think tank is trying to make that very home emblematic of what it deems Gore's environmental hypocrisy. Also on 6abc: Discuss This Story | More National News | Get Breaking eNews 6abc Podcasts |Get Text Alerts | Get 6abctogo | RSS Feeds

Armed with Gore's utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president's 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours.

"If this were any other person with $30,000-a-year in utility bills, I wouldn't care," says the Center's 27-year-old president, Drew Johnson. "But he tells other people how to live and he's not following his own rules."

Scoffed a former Gore adviser in response: "I think what you're seeing here is the last gasp of the global warming skeptics. They've completely lost the debate on the issue so now they're just attacking their most effective opponent."

Kalee Kreider, a spokesperson for the Gores, did not dispute the Center's figures, taken as they were from public records. But she pointed out that both Al and Tipper Gore work out of their home and she argued that "the bottom line is that every family has a different carbon footprint. And what Vice President Gore has asked is for families to calculate that footprint and take steps to reduce and offset it."

A carbon footprint is a calculation of the CO2 fossil fuel emissions each person is responsible for, either directly because of his or her transportation and energy consumption or indirectly because of the manufacture and eventual breakdown of products he or she uses. (You can calculate your own carbon footprint on the website http://www.carbonfootprint.com)

The vice president has done that, Kreider argues, and the family tries to offset that carbon footprint by purchasing their power through the local Green Power Switch program - electricity generated through renewable resources such as solar, wind, and methane gas, which create less waste and pollution. "In addition, they are in the midst of installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power," Kreider added. "They also use compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy efficiency measures and then they purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero."

These efforts did little to impress Johnson. "I appreciate the solar panels," he said, "but he also has natural gas lanterns in his yard, a heated pool, and an electric gate. While I appreciate that he's switching out some light bulbs, he is not living the lifestyle that he advocates."

The Center claims that Nashville Electric Services records show the Gores in 2006 averaged a monthly electricity bill of $1,359 for using 18,414 kilowatt-hours, and $1,461 per month for using 16,200 kilowatt-hours in 2005. During that time, Nashville Gas Company billed the family an average of $536 a month for the main house and $544 for the pool house in 2006, and $640 for the main house and $525 for the pool house in 2005. That averages out to be $29,268 in gas and electric bills for the Gores in 2006, $31,512 in 2005.

The press release from Johnson's group, an obscure conservative think tank founded by Johnson in 2004 when he was 24, was given splashy attention on the highly-trafficked Drudge Report Monday evening, and former Gore aides saw it as part of a piece, along with an Fox News Channel investigation from earlier this month of Gore's use of private planes in 2000. Last year, a seemingly amateurish Youtube video mocking the "An Inconvenient Truth" turned out to have been produced by slick Republican public relations firm called DCI, which just happens to have oil giant Exxon as a client.

"Considering that he spends an overwhelming majority of his time advocating on behalf of and trying to affect change on this issue, it's not surprising that people who have a vested interest in protecting the status quo would go after him," said the former Gore aide.

Kreider says she's confident that the Gores' utility bills will decrease. "They bought an older home and they're in the process of upgrading the home," she said. "Unfortunately that means an increase in energy use in order to have an overall decrease in energy use down the road."

Gore is not the only environmentalist associated with "An Inconvenient Truth" who has come under fire for personal habits - and not all the criticism has come from the Right.

Writing in The Atlantic Monthly in 2004, liberal writer Eric Alterman criticized producer Laurie David for her use of private Gulfstream jets. David, he wrote "reviles the owners of SUVs as terrorist enablers, yet gives herself a pass when it comes to chartering one of the most wasteful uses of fossil-based fuels imaginable." New Republic writer Gregg Easterbrook followed up, computing that "one cross-country flight in a Gulfstream is the same, in terms of Persian-Gulf dependence and greenhouse-gas emissions, as if she drove a Hummer for an entire year."

In an interview in 2006, David told ABC News that she was limiting her use of private planes and was flying commercial far more frequently.

[VeniVidiVici]

This self-serving nonsense of paying someone else to reduce your "carbon footprint" and calling yourself an environmentalist reminds me of people during the Civil War who paid some poor farmboy to go fight in their place and then called themselves patriots.

LOL! Awesome analogy!

[OpusatFR]

Just make sure the Gorebot pays you the going rate for his carbon offset to ride your bike to work, wash off at the village pump, and cook on your wok.

So IOW, the rich will be able to squander every bit of fuel on the planet as long as they pay you to live like chinese peasants.

I see how that works...

[engrpat]

I see that the press is going after Gore and several of the other leaders of the Global Warming group. I think the reason the MSM is doing this is that they are like the true believers of Islam...they hate those that don't believe as strongly as they do. They see in their leaders less than a solid commitment to the new faith. Tells you where both are coming from, one from a true belief of the new faith and those that only talk the talk. Could get to be fun to watch.

[VeniVidiVici]

Stock up. I believe glaciers have covered your area many times over the past few hundred thousand years or so. You may get stranded.

True conservationists don't have to worry about "talking the talk" or "walking the walk". They practice what they preach everyday.

It takes a true hypocrite to turn a profit off of scare mongering that the world going to hell due to humans, and then returning to one's 20,000 sq ft home that costs $30,000 a year to power.

What a fraud.

[OpusatFR]

"How much electricity he uses shouldn't be a factor. How it's produced and where it comes from are far more relevant concerns."

How much he uses is a factor. He is asking people to live green while not reducing his usage, nor reducing his use/demand for production and the products produced to support his lifestyle and that of his family. His consumption of everything produced be it clothes, food, consumer goods, transportation, and the myriad of things that his family uses in excess because of their demand is not reduced and it is that demand causes depletion.

The wealthy are rich enough to pay you to live less with carbon offsets while they still use the same amount of production which accomplishes nothing in the way of reducing pollution, waste and depletion.

I live as simply as possible. I'm not a socialist by any means, but as long the wealthy are telling others to reduce consumption, they need to do so also.

They can't continue an extravagant lifestyle of the elite living in luxury while the prolls are exhorted to live on a much lower scale of subsistence so that everyone is equally deprived.

IOW, what's good for the goose.

[norwaypinesavage]

"They [the Gores] also use compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy efficiency measures."

Obviously then, their electric bill is proof that these measures don't work to reduce energy consumption.

[Arrowhead1952]

***How much electricity he uses shouldn't be a factor. How it's produced and where it comes from are far more relevant concerns.***

Oh really? So it's OK to use more power in one month than most people use in a year because it's "green energy"? What if he used 1/4 of that and other households could use the other 3/4 of the energy they now get from coal or gas fired plants?

---

Beshert
Since Aug 26, 2006

---

You've been half a year and this is your only post?

[reformedliberal]

My wife and I both work out of home offices, we live in a 1913 house with lousy insulation, and our annual electric bill is about $5700, which I still consider to be highway robbery.

The original portion of our home was built in 1912. We have added insulation and space over 30 years. We have a home office, another room dedicated to a home business and a 1600 sq ft remodeled old barn that is a workshop for our other business. Total of 3800 sq ft. We have an above ground pool, 38'x18', heated during the season and a small hot tub kept at 106 degrees year round. Room air conditioning in about 1800 sq ft, all energy efficient and rarely is more than one running at any one time over the 3 months we might need them. 2 computers, a fax machine, 3 TVs, assorted other electronics and both our businesses use loads of hot water. Even our oversized septic system has an electric pump to push the water up to where gravity takes over. We have compact fluorescents in the areas where color discernment isn't vital.

Our total energy bills, electricity, propane heat/hot water and enough firewood to last the winter at 44 degrees North latitude is under $4k/year. Our Rural Electric Cooperative gets around 20% of its power from wind, solar, landfill and dairy farm methane. We drive a Focus for commuting and own a van we use mostly to pull the sailboat. We have a comfortable life at much less energy usage than Algore.From what I could gather in a web search, carbon offsets would run us about US$600/year.

IMO, the Gore's *home offices* are used to reduce their income tax. By having home businesses, they can deduct a portion of their utility bills, probably including their carbon offset costs. I will bet that they also deduct the costs of entertaining by listing it as a business expense. Every time Gore travels, he can deduct gas and depreciation on his personal vehicles as a business expense, as well as the costs of plane travel, lodging and food. I doubt they use discount travel/lodging, as we do. I suppose Tipper is also listed as an employee of Al's *business*.

However, I see around the web that the left is excusing the Gores and anyone who points out their hypocrisy is viciously flamed.

[fedupjohn]

30-thou a year in utility bills and the best they can come up with they each have a home office?

I have a home office and my utility bills here in New Jersey are about $5000.00 a year.

[VideoDoctor]

Normally, that level of electrical usage into a home here in Tenn usually results in a visit from the TBI ( Tenn Bureau of Investigation ) looking to see if you are running an indoor "pot" farm complete with large banks of grow lights.

Just a thought.

[Dave Olson]

"The vice president has done that, Kreider argues, and the family tries to offset that carbon footprint by purchasing their power through the local Green Power Switch program - electricity generated through renewable resources such as solar, wind, and methane gas, which create less waste and pollution."

Nonsense on stilts. The only way these "offsets" can truely offset is if they emit a negative amount of carbon. It's not enough for them to emit no carbon. They must actually absorb it. Solar, wind and methane gas don't do that.

[Politically Correct]

The Other Thread

[redtetrahedron]

"There are no Meteorologists out there who question global warming." Incorrect.

[Holicheese]

And his snowcone maker is going nonstop night and day!

[GATOR NAVY]

Obviously then, their electric bill is proof that these measures don't work to reduce energy consumption.

Or their energy consumption would really be off the scale if they didn't use these measures. Either way the Gores don't look too good.

[GATOR NAVY]

It's interesting to me that most of the harshest critics of protecting our environment and the ecosystems within it have usually never visited a so-called primitive culture, where there is nothing left over to waste and the only energy available is from natural sources i.e. sun, wind, water and wood.

I think it's interesting that those most in favor of "protecting our environment and the ecosystems within it" have no desire themselves to live in a "so-called primitive culture, where there is nothing left over to waste and the only energy available is from natural sources i.e. sun, wind, water and wood" but would more than happy to have the rest of us live so. Hypocrisy at its greatest.

[NordP]

"...In an interview in 2006, David told ABC News that she was limiting her use of private planes and was flying commercial far more frequently."

Ohhhh....the horrors...the SACRIFICE!!!