Down to Earth Blog

Tennessee Group Claims Gore Is a Hypocrite: In a press release issued Feb. 26, the day after Gore's movie 'An Inconvenient Truth' won as Oscar for best documentary, a conservative Tennessee think tank called the Tennessee Center for Policy Research claimed that Gore "deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy."

The group stated that Gore's Nashville mansion "consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year." They said Gore used 221,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006 and paid "nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006."

The group's president, Drew Johnson, said that "Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use."

ABC News reported these details ("Gore's 'Truth'? A $30,000 Utility Bill") and noted that a Gore spokeswoman did not dispute the energy-use numbers. But she also pointed out that the Gore's are walking the walk, by purchasing green, renewable power through the Green Power Switch program, installing solar panels and buying carbon offsets.  The Gore's net carbon footprint is zero.

So there's really no issue here. Gore is taking action. The green power he purchases surely costs more than regulary coal-generated power, so he's paying a premium there. The consumption numbers also include a pool and pool house.

One issue seems to be that Johnson does not approve of the amount of energy the Gore's are using. ABC quotes him as saying, "While I appreciate that he's switching out some light bulbs, he is not living the lifestyle that he advocates."

Yes, Gore has a larger house -- a mansion with 20 rooms and a pool. He also makes more money than most of us and can afford the large home and its energy costs. That he's decided to spend a bit more and purchase green energy and install solar shows that he is doing what he advocates:  taking action. Once the solar panels are installed, they'll reduce his energy consumption from the power grid.  So he's working to decrease his utility usage and his bills.

There's really no issue here.

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Want to purchase green, renewable power like Al Gore does?  Use this map from the EPA to find renewable power providers near where you live.

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• #2 Comment from ajsuno 
  3/11/07 10:09 AM | Permalink

  Gore is now installing solar panels years after he started preaching about Global Warming....and we're supposed to believe he is sincere? Gore has gone around the world dozens of times in private jets and he has created more pollution than entire counties. He continues to eat meat despite knowing farm animals create more CO2 than all the vehicles in the world. And we should listen to him?
  Gore reminds me of an evangelical preacher like Jim and Tammy Baker who lives off the contributions his congregation and as soon as he leaves the church he lives a lifestyle 180 degrees from what he preaches. It is called hypocrisy.
• #1 Comment from shortyaa43 
  3/6/07 6:33 PM | Permalink

  Gore is deffinitly a hypocriteI BELIEVE TIS MESS IS POLITICAL NOT MAN MADE