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After his film about global warming won an Oscar on Sunday, Al gore basked in the adulation og Hollywood.
You knew he'd get payback.
The right-wing wood-chippers have been chewing Gore into little pieces ever since. They didn't enjoy the joke when Gore reached into his tux and pulled out a phony presidential campaign announcement before the Oscar orchestra drummed him off stage. The very sight of Gore offends people who think the Supreme Court ruled he should never again be seen in public. Those folks can't forgive Gore for continuing to draw breath.
But what really got the phlegm flying on talk radio was the "gotcha" from a conservative group that outed the former vice president as a Limousine Electricity user. Zap...
Last year, Gore's mansion used almost 20 times as much electricity as the average American home.
Take that, you Hollywood types.
Everyone loves a juicy bit of hypocrisy, and I am prepared to believe a politician might say one thing in public and act another wayin privacy. But the Gore electricity kerfuffle offers an opportunity for Americans to point a finger.
At ourselves.
The science on global warming is convincing, and so is the need to throttle back on our polluting energy ways. "The best responce to Al Gore's energy usage is for us to think about our own." says Michael Noble , executive director of Fresh Energy, a St. Paul-based nonprofit group.
The group is working to develop a "clean, efficient and fair" energy system (www.fresh-energy.org). "We all ought to be looking at the automobile we drive, how we heat our house, whether it's insulated, whether we have efficent appliances, and how to reduce our fossil fuel use." No we don't have to live in cold, dark caves, Noble says. The Issue is about taking responsibility for our energy use, while supporting efforts to "change the entire energy system, topto bottom, to substitue energy-efficent and carbon-free energy for fossil fuels which lead to warming."
Gore, by the way offsets his fossil-fuel use by paying extra for renewable energy credits. This was ignored by the talk-radio goobers, but the idea is simple: For a smallextra charge, pennies per kilowatt hour, you can "buy" renewable energy credits from your energy company, which uses the money (it is carefully audited) to buy that amount of nonpolluting power (such as wind energy) for its system rather than building more power plants.
Result: Your power lines may still deliver fossil to your house, but you are making the power company buy additional, nonpolluting green energy for its grid. Not enough Minnesotans buy such credits (under 1percent). But Minnesota is making progress on the green scene: Last week, the Legislature passed, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty approved, a renewable energy bill that requires 25 percent of electricity in the state to come from nonpolluting sources by 2025.
Another law being considered would require power companies to invest more in energy efficiency before building more plants. "The scientific evidence is rock-solid," says Noble. "The only solution to global warming is to reduce our total carbon emissions by 80 percent. Al Gore has helped get that message across quite confusingly." Even if tipper leaves the laundry room lights on.
You knew he'd get payback.
The right-wing wood-chippers have been chewing Gore into little pieces ever since. They didn't enjoy the joke when Gore reached into his tux and pulled out a phony presidential campaign announcement before the Oscar orchestra drummed him off stage. The very sight of Gore offends people who think the Supreme Court ruled he should never again be seen in public. Those folks can't forgive Gore for continuing to draw breath.
But what really got the phlegm flying on talk radio was the "gotcha" from a conservative group that outed the former vice president as a Limousine Electricity user. Zap...
Last year, Gore's mansion used almost 20 times as much electricity as the average American home.
Take that, you Hollywood types.
Everyone loves a juicy bit of hypocrisy, and I am prepared to believe a politician might say one thing in public and act another wayin privacy. But the Gore electricity kerfuffle offers an opportunity for Americans to point a finger.
At ourselves.
The science on global warming is convincing, and so is the need to throttle back on our polluting energy ways. "The best responce to Al Gore's energy usage is for us to think about our own." says Michael Noble , executive director of Fresh Energy, a St. Paul-based nonprofit group.
The group is working to develop a "clean, efficient and fair" energy system (www.fresh-energy.org). "We all ought to be looking at the automobile we drive, how we heat our house, whether it's insulated, whether we have efficent appliances, and how to reduce our fossil fuel use." No we don't have to live in cold, dark caves, Noble says. The Issue is about taking responsibility for our energy use, while supporting efforts to "change the entire energy system, topto bottom, to substitue energy-efficent and carbon-free energy for fossil fuels which lead to warming."
Gore, by the way offsets his fossil-fuel use by paying extra for renewable energy credits. This was ignored by the talk-radio goobers, but the idea is simple: For a smallextra charge, pennies per kilowatt hour, you can "buy" renewable energy credits from your energy company, which uses the money (it is carefully audited) to buy that amount of nonpolluting power (such as wind energy) for its system rather than building more power plants.
Result: Your power lines may still deliver fossil to your house, but you are making the power company buy additional, nonpolluting green energy for its grid. Not enough Minnesotans buy such credits (under 1percent). But Minnesota is making progress on the green scene: Last week, the Legislature passed, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty approved, a renewable energy bill that requires 25 percent of electricity in the state to come from nonpolluting sources by 2025.
Another law being considered would require power companies to invest more in energy efficiency before building more plants. "The scientific evidence is rock-solid," says Noble. "The only solution to global warming is to reduce our total carbon emissions by 80 percent. Al Gore has helped get that message across quite confusingly." Even if tipper leaves the laundry room lights on.
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