I’ve been posting a lot about Al Gore’s power bill, and his “but I only use semi-renewable sources” excuse for using 20x more power than everybody else.

I want to point out that Gore’s purchase “carbon offsets” to justify his massive personal energy use, and private jet flights, has historical counterparts that I’m sure most of us would find something less than savory.

Back in the days of this nation’s civil war a draft was instituted in the Union states, but people with enough money could avoid that draft by either paying a sum of $300 to avoid a battle or hiring a replacement to fight which would then excuse you from the entire war.  The effect of these policies?  The rich didn’t have to fight.

In the early days of religion is another example of the sort of thing Gore is now doing.  Catholics confess their sins these days and are given a penance assignment to do by the priest which absolves them of their transgressions.  Today these penances are usually prayers, but several centuries ago (when sin was a much more dire thing) the church was willing to take money in exchange for absolution.  The effect?  The rich could get out of church punishment for their sins, but the poor couldn’t.

These two examples are not at all different from what Gore is doing.  Despite encouraging his fellow citizens to cut back on their power consumption and emit less greenhouse gases Gore himself owns a home which uses massive amounts of energy when compared to the average American home, and he jets around the world preaching his global warming doctrine in private jets which, in a mere few hours, emit more greenhouse gases than the average citizen does in an entire year.

But Gore says that his activities are ok, because he can buy carbon credits that excuse his energy-extravagant lifestyle.  Just like the rich folks during the Civil War could buy their way out of serving their country, and the aristocracy could buy it’s way out of sin in medieval times.

I think Gore’s “restrictions for thee but loopholes for me” hypocrisy should be exposed for what it is.  Elitism, pure and simple.  As a free-market capitalist my personal belief is that Gore should be able to use as much power as he can afford, and take as many private flights as he can pay for, but when the guy is telling me that I have to use less power while simultaneously living a lifestyle of exceptional power use (and carbon emission) I can’t help but cry foul.