Former Vice-President Al Gore has thrown down the gauntlet in the U.S. energy debate by challenging the nations lawmakers, entrepreneurs and energy policy specialists to rid the country of all fossil fuel-driven electricity within ten years. Speaking at an energy conference in Washington yesterday, Gore told the audience renewable energy sources such as wind and solar needed to take precedence because "the survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk."
The Nobel Peace Prize recipient and noted environmentalist told the audience that he could not "...remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously" in the country but added that though the problems faced are many, they were not insurmountable.
Though pointing to the opportunity that an election year presents for a
change in policy thinking, Gore was careful to remain non-partisan
saying he had had many fruitful conversations with both Democratic
nominee Barack Obama and Republican contender John McCain over issues
concerning the environment and energy policy.
He said the effort
needed by the United States to end its reliance on fossil fuels was
similar to the challenge thrown out by President John F. Kennedy to put
a man on the moon by the end of the sixties.
The plan received
immediate support from Senator Obama who released a statement through
his campaign team congratulating the former vice president.
"ForHowever U.S. news sources have reported the proposal has received far from universal support.
decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate
change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this
threat," the statement said.
"I strongly agree with Vice
President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but
must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar
power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments
I will make as President. It's a strategy that will create millions of
new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will
leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer." [source]
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio)
for one has blasted the speech calling the proposal "ridiculous".
Voinovich said to rid the country of carbon-based fuels such as coal
would be wrong because of the country's abundance of resources. He has
called for a solution which does not exclude carbon-based fuels.
"WeOther
could put windmills from the Atlantic to the Pacific and, yes, it will
increase the amount of carbon-free energy production, but the fact of
the matter is, it's not going to get the job done," Voinovich said.
"What we need to do is to look at all of the various sources of
energy... We'd be much more realistic to realize that it's going to
take all of these things in order for us to meet our energy demands." [source]
Gore critics have accused the former Vice President of alarmism and
have pointed out the excessive cost needed to convert the country's
energy system over to renewables.
The Alliance for Climate
Protection, a bipartisan environmental group led by Gore, has admitted
that, "the cost of transforming the US to clean electricity sources at
$1.5 trillion to $3 trillion over 30 years in public and private
money," according to a report in the Boston Globe.
However Gore has said it represents the same amount of money to build polluting coal plants to satisfy current demand.
"ThisImage top left. Gore receives the Nobel Peace Priz, Dec 10, 2007. Credit: guano/flickr
is an investment that will pay itself back many times over," Gore told
the AP. "It's an expensive investment but not compared to the rising
cost of continuing to invest in fossil fuels."
For further information about the Alliance for Climate Protection, see here.
Want the full transcript of Gore's speech? See here courtesy of the Washington Post.
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I was listening to the World Service and they consistently gave the speech top billing all night. Yet when i turn on the ol laptop i find no mention of this on my Google home page or the American version. Why not, i would like to know.
By Stephen Marden Somerset England on July 18, 2008 6:39 AM
"I was listening to the World Service and they consistently gave the speech top billing all night. Yet when i turn on the ol laptop i find no mention of this on my Google home page or the American version. Why not, i would like to know."
Why? Because Al Gore is an ignorant, self-righeous, egotistical, loudmouth.
I'm sure a Limey like you would love to see America follow a moron like him into economic collapse and become a third world country. I know it would do wonders for your self esteem. But it's not going to happen, because we are winners. A difficult concept for you to understand, I know. Let me explain it this way:
If Adolf Hitler had invaded Mexico instead of Czechoslovakia, we wouldn't have sent a limp-wristed little twit to beg him to sign a declaration of peace. We would have set Germany on fire. We would have been dragging his @ss out of a hole in the ground before he could ever even dream of doing the same to Poland. That's the differnce between winners and losers.
Interesting point thanks Stephen. Here in Australia we've been swamped with coverage of the Pope's visit, news such as Gore's speech has also found it difficult to get air time.
Good to see the former Veep making his point though. Whether or not you agree with his argument, history will judge him favourably I think, and he certainly can't be accused of being one of those appeasers who "fiddled while Rome burned".
It seems that Mr. Gore has changed his marketing message. While he still makes multiple claims that are a little hard to substantiate, he doesn't seem to be making the wild claims he did in An Inconvenient Truth (see http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2007/10/26/35-inconvenient-truths-the-errors-in-al-gores-movie-part-1-of-5/)
Now, Mr. Gore is taking the energy independence tactic. This is much more realistic and more people are likely to make "sacrifices" for the sake of energy independence if we state that we have to break away from the Mideast and destroy their power over us. He seems to put a lot of his reliance on solar energy though and we should probably include nuclear and hydrogen in that discussion.
Now that the world temperatures seem to be on a cooling trend, the Arctic sea ice isn't melting as predicted and on and on Gore has to twist the message. It's the same environmental message that brought us the famous Newsweek article in 1975 predicting we would all be starving by 2000 thanks to a new Ice Age. All kinds of scientists got on board that one at the time also. Enough is enough, it's all about money, power, politics and control. Is anybody really dumb enough to believe that we know the weather 100 years from now when we can't predict tomorrows forecast? The drillining opponents say it will take 10 years to get that oil to market. If it takes 10 years to get the oil to market using proven technologies than how can anyone believe that in 10 years we are going to be powering everything with air and sun when the technology just doesn't exist to do so today. Al Gore's thinking (using the term loosely) it can happen doesn't make it reality. But I thank him for inventing the internet so I could make this post today.
Even if Vice Pres Gore is exaggerating, it would behoove all of us to be more responsible when it come to conserving energy. The Arctic ice caps are melting. There is a finite amount of oil that can be use to fuel our cars, planes, homes, and buildings. The only way we are going to survive as an independent nation is to get off our addiction to foreign oil. We do not need to be going to Saudi Arabia with our hands out. It is appalling to me to what lengths this administration will go just to keep oil flowing. If it means drilling here while we are developing alternate sources of fuel, so be it. We need to get away from this dependence and be on our own. We sure don't need to be beholden to another country one minute longer!
The global warming crowd has hijacked the global pollution problem, which is a more concerning...with China and India and many other developing countries spewing out large amounts into the atmosphere which circle the globe and are raising the particulates of all sorts in the locale environments. As for Global warming(i fear an ice age more) The temperatures are not above the global norms of the planet. 5 to 15 degrees is not even touching the top levels of past temperatures. The large price in oil and gas prices is shifting the populace without the need for government regulations, smaller fuel efficient cars and such.
Money is a motivator for the consumer. So enviromentalist must cheer high oil prices, this will help the enviroment more.
Is this the same Al Gore that lives in a house that uses 29 times the amount of fossil fuel of an average American home...the Al Gore that flits all over the planet in a private jet...the Al Gore that loaded up a documentary with falsehoods and quackery...the Al Gore who shares his Nobel Peace Prize with scientific organization that lost its' accreditation due to poor research...THAT Al Gore. He's just another Democratic f***head, who wants to tell others what to do, without applying any of the "solutions", to those "problems", to himself. Anyway, I'm having a hard time figuring out which of the wonderous "solutions" of his is going to allow me to get to work in the morning. A wind powered car? A solar one? Perhaps he could sell that bullsh*t that spews from his mouth to help invent a manure powered car...although having heard him "speak" live on a number of occasions, I can assure you he's a bit too slow and stilted to provide enough to power his own jet. What do you know...he just popped up on a Sunday morning news show, and when he stares at the camera, he looks as on the ball as my pet German Shepherd, especially around his beady eyes. Old boy looks stupid, sounds stupid, espouses science fiction energy solutions (not totally stupid) and is looking to get even richer through the scam that is carbon credits. And finally, we wouldn't have to listen to this huckster in the first place, if his daddy hadn't gotten rich and powerful by mining coal. God!,he's stupid.
Mr. Gore is juat another Cool Aid drinker''
We have wasted incredible amounts of time, money, lives, etc.. on fossil fuels. We should be investing in peacefull, home based infrastructure, first the home, then the neighborhood, then the local government. We did not need fossil fuels 100 years ago and we don't need them now. Use wood, wind, mass transit, home based businesses. We just don't need to be slaves to the system. We need to build non purchased energy systems that survive for our decendants or we won't have any decendants. Forget raising crops for livestock production. Meat eater are sicker than vegetarians and die sooner. Have wind farms, not meat farms. Unless we change our decendents will die of plague, due to environmental and nuclear disasters.
Kevin DeMaij, you are an idiot!!!!!!!
Al Gore's plan to convert all electricity generation away from fossil fuels will not help at all to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, as he insinuates. Our electricity is generated from coal, or natural gas, or nuclear power--never oil. If we totally converted to solar, wind, geothermal and waterfalls, we would still be in the exact same situation with regard to fuel prices and dependence on our enemies for oil.
Al Gore is a liar. Always has been.
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AL'fat-f^ck'GORE looks like he has eaten whole continents. Despite 'global warming EXPERTS' denying there is any link to CO2 + GLOBAL WARMING - 'fat-f^ck'AL still wants to 'rule' the world through environmental laws TO SUPPOSEDLY PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT!!! DID AL'fat-miserable-f^ck' SELL HIS STOCK IN OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM OR HIS TOBACCO STOCKS??? Turn on a lightbulb LEFTY-LOSERS this guy's as fraud and you've been SCAMMED!!
Hahahaha........there's nothin to do but laugh at all you IGNORANT fascist morons!!! Science could find a way of making people fly but it could never figure out how you people yap without a friggin brain.......You dont need to be a scientist to see proof of Global Warming.....Bloody Americans........just look at the whole world.....You are not the ones who are having to pay......Rivers drying up in Africa........decade long droughts.......same thing in Australia.....coastal countries like mine are going through floods the likes we've never seen before...people die here cause of dat...Record hail storms in Europe......record storms everywhere.....U Americans saw the increasing number of Tornadoes and hurricanes for yourself, not to mention the record temperatures in the summer.....but no you'll still turn a blind eye cause half your country's filled with ignorant rednecks.........."global warming experts"......how would you know one you idiot.....you elected a RETARD for a President TWO TIMES!....
This is shaping up to be better than any soap opera, even better than the "VIEW". Holy Cow Batman imagine that. The fight of the century. T Boone Pickens verses The Al Gore Greenies !!! What a show, this could last for decades. Say what, are they not on the same page ?? Maybe someone should tell Pelosi that. Mr. Pickens and his big windmills against the same green weenies who will not allow power transmission lines to be built across the desert, for environmental reasons of course (I understand that there are only 9 x 10 to the 5000 power Blue One Wing Three Toed Grasshoppers left per square kilometer). Whoa, just what is Mr. Pickens supposed to do with all this electrical power then ? What is poor Nancy Pelosi supposed to believe ? She cannot tell the great god Al Gore that him and his paranoid greenies are wrong. I feel so sorry for the queen of stupidity.
Solution to pollution and reliance on imported energy: Burn all Republicans. Most are obese and have fat where their brains should be. There are enough Republicans to power the energy needs of America for at least two years. And, unfortunately, they are a renewable resource.
TO: ice age coming + other EUROTRASH/aussie IDJITS - remember AL'fat-f^ck'GORE told you he invented the internet and that tobacco he harvested killed his sister!!! YOUSE BEEN SCAMMED AGAIN!!! PULL YOUR HEAD OUTTA THAT KANGATOO'S BUTTHOLE - IT WON'T SAVE YOU!!! AWWWW-W DON'T LOKE PRESIDENT BUSH DO YOU - WELL BECAUSE OF HIM AND AMERIKANS YOU AUSSIE-USELESS-F^CKS[that's why women rule down under!!!] ARE NOT RECITING THE KORAN NOW??? OR ARE YOU??? So stop mentally masturbating in your mama's basement with those koala's - get a life you AUSSIE RETARD!!! VOTE OBAMA FOR CHANGE - MAYBE YOU WILL FINALLY GET THAT 'SEX' CHANGE OPERATION YOU NEED. Ha.
first is one part in 10000....then one part in 100000...then one part in 1000000...then one part 10000000....sorry you cant be cleaner then nature...thats called steralization, look what happened when they cleaned the beaches of the valdeaze spill...high power goober sprays...yeesh. the beaches left to nature cleaned themselves well...figuring oil is accually a natural product produced by nature...go figure condeming nature over her own product.
I'm no Al Gore lover. But this article isn't specifically dealing with global warming. At least, that's not the way I read it. One thing's for sure. The only way out of our (the US) current energy woes is to become energy independent. Letting things go on the way they have is not productive. But don't believe Al Gore. Believe a man who made MILLIONS in the oil business and is now saying pretty much the same thing - T. Boone Pickens (PickensPlan.com).
There is no quick fix ... nor is there a painless fix. But there IS a fix. We only have to start walking down the right road toward that fix - keeping in mind the old adage:
IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A DEEP HOLE, STOP DIGGING (or drilling, for that matter).
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