The Mote And The Beam Of Global Warming (Updated: Gore Responds)

After last night’s Oscar win, Al Gore has ridden a wave of good press about his efforts to end global warming. Having Leonardo DiCaprio try to push Gore into a Presidential run in front of a billion people worldwide has to be heady stuff for the former VP and erstwhile candidate. I’m sure Gore left feeling energized — although not as energized as his mansion in Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (via Hot Air):

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

Okay, before we start really throwing the hypocrisy label at The Goracle of Global Warming, we should take care not to hit ourselves with it first. Most CQ readers are free-market thinkers. There’s nothing wrong with Gore using that kind of energy if he’s willing to pay for it. A mansion would use a lot more energy than a normal single-family dwelling; I’m sure that Bill Gates’ electrical bills dwarf what Gore’s paying for his Tennessee juice. My objection to his level of consumption would only be that he’s driving prices up with his large demand.
That being said, the fact that his energy use increased so dramatically after the release of his documentary makes him look a little ridiculous. After all, he’s on the road more now, and energy use should decrease, although his family may not travel with him much. Besides, as we saw at the Oscars last night, Gore wants the rest of us to downsize and conserve rather than just treat energy like any other market — and Gore is obviously not doing that for himself.
He may retort that he purchases carbon waivers that help fund efforts to clean the environment and reduce global warming to balance his large energy usage. I’d respond: so? The point that the global-warming alarmists make is that we have to stop releasing carbons in order to reverse the “crisis”, as they called it over and over again, not to create a rations market that acts like a parasite to the energy market. If the situation is as dire as Gore painted it in An Inconvenient Truth and at the Oscars last night, then one might expect a little more self-discipline from the chief alarmist disciple.
UPDATE: Al Gore has responded via Think Progress, one of the better liberal blogs:

1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.
2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:
What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero.

Interesting that he doesn’t dispute the numbers; he just tries a little misdirection instead.
First, the solar panels and the compact fluorescent light bulbs will certainly make a difference — but the TCPR report looks at his electricity bill, which still indicates (a) a high level of usage, and (b) an increase since the movie’s release. Solar panels generate electricity at the location, which should then decrease the amount of power he’s buying from the utility. If it’s still going up, there seems to be a serious management problem somewhere.
Second, as I mentioned above, purchasing offsets only means that Gore doesn’t want to make the same kind of sacrifices that he’s asking other families to make. He’s using a modern form of indulgences in order to avoid doing the penance that global-warming activism demands of others. It means that the very rich can continue to suck up energy and raise the price and the demand for electricity and natural gas, while families struggle with their energy costs and face increasing government regulation and taxation. It’s a regressive plan that Gore’s supporters would decry if the same kind of scheme were applied to a national sales tax, for instance.
And basically, it doesn’t address the issue of hypocrisy. If Gore and his family continue to increase their consumption of commercial energy with all of the resources they have at hand, then they have no business lecturing the rest of us on conservation and down-scaling our own use. (via The Anchoress)

19 thoughts on “The Mote And The Beam Of Global Warming (Updated: Gore Responds)”

  1. Gore’s Own Inconvenient Truth

    Sure, perhaps this group is just getting some free publicity, riding the coattails of The Goracle. But who can blame them? He’s the biggest thing in Hollywood, after Michael Moore, of course.

  2. Inconvenient Truth: Bush greener than Gore

    Kim at Wizbang is looking at this information from the Tennessee Center for Research Policy, and she’s at how much glory, laud and honor come Al Gore’s way when his house hogs energy and resources while George W. Bush’s Midland Ranch …

  3. Al Gore’s Inconvenient Hypocrisy

      The Gorebot’s got some explaining to do: Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth” Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average. […]In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combine…

  4. Al Gore’s Mansion Uses As Much Electricity In A Month As An Average House Does In A Year

    Let me be clear up front, I could care less about Al Gore and his politics. This isn’t an attack because he is a leftie, it is an attack on his hypocrisy. The ultimate in hypocrisy. Al Gore has been…

  5. Al Gore’s Mansion Uses As Much Electricity In A Month As An Average House Does In A Year

    Let me be clear up front, I could care less about Al Gore and his politics. This isn’t an attack because he is a leftie, it is an attack on his hypocrisy. The ultimate in hypocrisy. Al Gore has been…

  6. Walking the walk?

    Drudge:
    The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average. Last August alone, Gore burned through 2…

  7. Global Warming: \”It\’s A Moral Issue\”–UPDATED, More Updates Scroll Down

    Ah, it is so very loverly when leftist progressives speak in hushed passionate tones and wax religious about moral strictures meant for the little people. At the Academy Awards last night, I didn\’t have to worry about missing church, the whole evening…

  8. You’d Like to Think ….

    …. that Herculean hypocrisy like this (HT Instapundit, who refers to the hubbub as an “Inconvenient Utility Bill”) would get broader exposure.
    Don’t count on it.
    Just look at previous examples from the left side of the aisle, kn…

  9. Sacrifice for thee, not for me

    As the Gores of the world have tirelessly reminded us, Americans comprise a mere 5% of the global population, yet consume 26% of the world’s energy. But if all Americans consumed like Al Gore, this country would consume 624% of the world’s energy. That…

  10. Somebody get that man a horse!

    Last night, via a hitherto unknown think tank in Tennessee, we all learned that Al Gore’s evidently talking the talk, but not walking the walk:
    In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electr…

  11. Al Gore – Hypocrite

    Tennessee Center for Policy Research: Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
    Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average
    Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected a…

  12. Global Warming Hysterics Today: Al Gore’s House

    Lots of people have posted about John Edwards very large house he is building in Orange County, NC, which is not environmentally friendly. Well, what about Al Gore's house? (h/t Hot Air)
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  13. Teh Goracle of the Global Warming Religion

    AlGore is the number one fingure in the New Church of Global Warming. He said Global Warming was not a political issue, but a moral issue. BS. It is totally political. It is all about killing the American businesses into

  14. Teh Goracle of the Global Warming Religion

    AlGore is the number one fingure in the New Church of Global Warming. He said Global Warming was not a political issue, but a moral issue. BS. It is totally political. It is all about killing the American businesses into

  15. Saving the World With Accounting Tricks

    I am consistent amazed at how willing the left is to defend the indefensible, usually in the most rhetorically over-the-top means possible. As reported yesterday, here and elsewhere, Al Gore’s energy consumption habits stand in stark contrast to his mo…

  16. Carbon Offset Credits

    Purchasing carbon offsets is just a way for the very rich environmentalists to have their energy cake, while being able to lecture the rest of us about how wasteful we are.

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