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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Gore Responds To Critics Of His Power Consumption***

Yesterday Whistler posted on an article about Al Gore’s mansion using about 20x more energy than average American home.  Gore’s people have now taken the time to respond to that information, saying that Gore buys all of his power from a “green” power supplier and that he’s installing solar panels and other measures to reduce his home’s consumption of energy.

...a spokesman for Gore quickly fired back Monday night, claiming, “The Gore’s purchase all of their power through the local Green Powerswitch program—it is 100 percent renewable power.”

“In addition, they are in the midst of a renovation which includes installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power,” Gore’s spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said in a statement.

That’s great that Gore buys all of his power from renewable sources and that he’s taking the initiative to lower his power consumption.  He is apparently not a hypocrite then, at least on this issue, but it does reveal a larger problem with Gore’s push to make us all comply with his green, anti-global warming doctrine.

You see, while someone like Al Gore can afford to buy all of his power from boutique alternative energy sources, your average American probably can’t.  Nor can your average American likely afford to purchase the carbon credits Gore uses to justify his jetting about in private airplanes, etc.  It’s all well and good for celebrities like Gore or some Hollywood type to live their lives green, but most of us simply can’t afford to do what they can do.  Maybe Gore doesn’t mind his electric bill jumping by 10 or 15% if it means he uses only green power, but is that sort of a jump in expense something your average citizen can absorb?  I don’t think so.

Yet that is exactly what Gore is asking us to do.  He wants us to make our lives more complicated, he wants to make our household and fuel bills more expensive, all to protect against this global warming threat that is, frankly, not really all that well-defined as a threat.

But this is just how liberals operate.  Celebrities and rich, left-wing politicians are fond of talking about raising taxes and making citizens sacrifice so that the government can afford to provide us with more services.  After all, they’re rich.  They don’t mind paying more in taxes.  To them their tax bill going up 5% is of little consequence.  It’s just money.  But to even upper-class Americans, who make $200 - $300 thousand a year but are raising kids and saving up for college/retirement, a 5% increase in taxes is a difficult pill to swallow.

Put simply, most people on the left expect us all to pay, collectively, for their good deeds.  Al Gore buys really expensive energy from boutique suppliers and expects the rest of us to do the same because he thinks its a good thing.  Someone like Nancy Pelosi thinks businesses should pay their low-wage workers more because she feels that’s a good thing.  Someone like John Edwards thinks we should all pay more in taxes so that we can all be enrolled in a national health care system because he thinks that would be a good thing.

What we need to ask ourselves is why we should pay more of our money to do the things Gore, Pelosi and Edwards want to do when we could keep it in our own pockets and use it to make our own lives, and the lives of our families, better?

***Update by the Whistler***

Rob those are all good points but you didn’t address the actual facts of his press release which I think sounds hollow.  First of all I’m going to make my free-market disclaimer that if Algore wasn’t a hypocrite he’d have every right to do what he wants to do with his money.  But he wants to force us to sacrifice while he can live as the elite he believes himself to be.

First of all the original story documents how Algore’s utility bill has climbed significantly since he released his movie.  That alone is enough to show that he really doesn’t care.

He claims that he’s installing solar panels.  Why has he waited until now?  How much is he going to reduce his electrical consumption.  I’ll bet that he’s not going to cover more than a tiny fraction of the energy that’s produced.

Algore says he only buys “clean” power.  I imagine in Tennessee a lot of that power is hydroelectric.  If Algore was actually cutting his consumption there would be more renewable electricity to supplant what someone else is getting from the coal plant.  If Algore wants to force me to live on less than 1500 Kilowatt hours a month than he should be living on that now. 

If Algore were willing to practice what he preaches he would have closed off the extra rooms in his mansion.  He’d quit heating his swimming pool.  He’d start living the way he wants us to live.

Comments

Avatar for Robert Perry

I’d argue he still is a hypocrite because his public activism is seeking to reduce the choices the rest of us have.  Austerity for thee, but not for me, seems to be his motto.

Robert Perry on February 27, 2007 at 02:12 pm

And just how in the hell is natural gas a renewable source?  The methane produced from Green Powerswitch is used for electricity production (wow, a whole 8MW).

The man is not only a hypocrite, but a lying one at that.

electnixon on February 27, 2007 at 02:36 pm
Rob
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Well, according to the Green Powerswitch website the methane comes from human waste from Memphis.  But it’s co-fired with coal...so still not exactly an entirely renewable source.

And that does seem to be where the Powerswitch gets most of it’s “green energy.” According to the website they seem to only have a couple of windmills up, and a few solar panels.


The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

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Rob on February 27, 2007 at 03:09 pm

includes installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power

is he buying the solar panels that slap your dumb ass and turn off all the TVs and lights in the house? otherwise i don’t see how they are going to reduce his energy usage… only a retard would say something like that. just because you have a means to provide some of your own energy doesnt mean you are consuming less of it.

Sparkie Arbuckle on February 27, 2007 at 03:33 pm

Welcome to BP Solar
One of the world’s leading solar companies: Innovative, Progressive, Performance Driven and Green
BP

Shell-Siemens is another.
Oil companies manufacturing solar panels....hmmmmm

Thats like Philip Morris manufacturing NicoDerm Patch....


“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Mark D on February 27, 2007 at 03:53 pm

Oil companies manufacturing solar panels....hmmmmm

They’re more accurately energy companies. If you look into the figures, the “oil companies” are some of the biggest investors in “renewable energy”.

likwidshoe on February 28, 2007 at 01:24 am

likewidshoe

Ya but don’t you get a chuckle when you see Philip Morris promote youth smoking prevention? Isn’t that cutting into future profits?


“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Mark D on February 28, 2007 at 06:02 am

Ya but don’t you get a chuckle when you see Philip Morris promote youth smoking prevention?

No, because I know that Philip Morris has been ordered by the government to produce those commercials. It was a part of the settlement reached almost a decade ago.

likwidshoe on February 28, 2007 at 07:06 am

Damn government anti-capitalists machine.
Too much regulation.......


“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Mark D on February 28, 2007 at 07:17 am

You’re a classic Mark, wrong about everything but unwilling to admit it.


The Debate is over!  Global Whining has been confirmed.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on February 28, 2007 at 07:36 am

TW

come on.....that hurts my feelings

View My Video
Don’t worry, it’s clean


“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Mark D on February 28, 2007 at 08:04 am

Making solarpanels is a “dirty” process, creates a lot of residues and waste that is toxic. Newer generation panels are not as bad, current production types like he would be using are.

All this is only the tip. Algore owns multiple residences, all held in a state of readiness to be occupied. That is power,water,sewage,staff, and security. 24/7/365.

Not to mention his ground transport fleet. 6 Secret Service agents take a lot of transporting. Staff? How many people must accompany Algore everywhere he goes. We are talking at least 3 six to ten passenger vehicles. And all this does not include advance security detail. If he is going to several meetings/conferences/press events in different cities that means a 5-8 man advance team to each individual location. Plus his media crew.

Whole lot of carbon foot prints all of the place.


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on February 28, 2007 at 08:39 am

"All over the place”, typing fast.


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on February 28, 2007 at 08:40 am
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