A carbon footprint in everybody’s face

With all those lights on in his Tennessee mansion, Al Gore reads Canada Free Press (CFP). Or at least Kalee D. Kreider, “Communications Director/Environmental adviser in the Office of the Hon. Al Gore and Mrs. Tipper Gore”, does. “I am writing to respond to the CFP piece: Gore’s electricity consumption up 10 percent despite “energy efficient” renovations,” said Ms. Kreider. “This is essentially the press release of a group that has continually attacked the Gores using incorrect, outdated and inflated information.” In a cover story Wednesday, CFP noted “At the same time global warming alarmists in Canada and Australia are stooping to bogeymen tactics for school age kids, their leader Al Gore has been caught with his global warming pants on fire.” “For the second time in the space of little more than a year, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has dragged the size of Gore’s real Global Warming footprint onto the Drudge Report.”

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“Despite Gore’s well-touted “green” overhaul of his mansion, his personal electricity is up more than 10%,” “In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity—enough to power 232 average American households for a month,” said the Centre in a media release. Ms. Kreider--or someone close to her--was concerned about “the true measure” of Al and Tipper Gore’s carbon footprint. “The Gores have undertaken over a three-year renovation to their home and obtained Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the US Green Building Council in November 2007. That means that the true benefits of energy efficiency and renewables programs that they have implemented would have not fully taken effect until 2008.” “Since the beginning of the year, their use of electricity and natural gas (the true measure of their carbon footprint) has declined 40 percent,” said Ms. Kreider. “In addition, they purchase their power through the Green PowerSwitch program—which is certified through their local utility. This means that their electricity is certified to be solar, wind and methane gas.” The Gores, it would seem are entitled to their share of methane gas, but not so for the cows and the sheep of the fields. As a Friend of the Environment commented to CFP, “Even with a 40% reduction, Gore is still 12 times higher than the national average.” As a married couple with no children at home, aren’t Al and Tipper Gore, according to strict Global Warming dictates, over housed? They also own two houses. What about the other one? “Finally, there were other spurious claims made by this group,” Ms. Kreider continued. “The Gores donate their time to educate the public about the climate crisis, and have donated all of the proceeds of the Nobel Peace Prize, “An Inconvenient Truth” (the book and film) as well as many of his speaking fees to their philanthropy the Alliance for Climate Protection”. It could be argued that Gore can easily afford philanthropy given that his personal wealth increased by an estimated $100 million, thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria. Then there are the carbon credits Gore bought through his own company, General Investment Management. When the Tennessee Center for Policy Research revealed that Gore’s house uses 20 times as much electricity as the average household nationwide last March, Ms. Kreider called the statement misleading. “The power coming into their residence is green, renewable power,” she said. Center President Drew Johnson was unimpressed. “The energy he receives into his house is no different than what I receive into my house,” he said. “He doesn’t have a green power line hooked into his house.” It seems that Al Gore’s lauded carbon footprint can sometimes be found in his mouth.