Gore's Pulse: March 2007

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Gore Smear Attack Exposed

Misleading information about high energy consumption by the Gores’ Tennessee home was released in late February by a post-office-box front-group in Nashville. CBS News, the AP, and other media quickly refuted the lies in that right-wing smear. The front-group exaggerated the Gores’ annual energy use by 30,000 kwh and said it got its figures from the Nashville Electric Service. Yet NES spokeswoman Laurie Parker said the utility never received a request from the group and never gave it any information. Apparently unknowingly Time, Newsweek and other main stream media and individuals continued to perpetuate the smear.

It is true that the Gores live in a large home in the city of Belle Meade near Nashville, and use more energy than the average American family. As our former Vice President, he has special security needs that require a live-in staff. Both Al and Tipper manage their businesses and charitable efforts from their home.

Over several years an architect has retrofitted the Gores’ home with energy-efficient windows, lighting and other energy saving efforts. For more than two years the architect has prodded the City to amend its zoning code to allow solar panels. The panels will be permitted after April 1, and they will be installed promptly on the Gores’ home.

The Gores live in the East South-Central climate region that has the highest per-household energy usage of any region in the country as reported by CBS News and AP. It is about 50% higher, and is caused by a combination of cold winters and hot, muggy summers. However, due to energy conservation improvements, the Gores’ per-square-foot energy use is 19.1 kwh, less than the region’s average of 19.83 kwh. The 19.43 kwh figure in an above comment is not correct as it was based on the exaggerated amount asserted by the Nashville front group.

Some feel that during the March 21 Senate Committee hearing Sen. James Inhofe was reasonable when he invited Gore to pledge to use no more energy than the average American. Inhofe was purposely trying to distract and embarrass Gore with an impossible request. The average energy usage figure includes apartments, condos, and other multi-family dwellings. There is no way that even medium sized homes in the East South-Central region could use less energy than the average American.

Gore emphasizes several ways to conserve energy and resources, support policies that create good-paying jobs to protect and improve our environment, and elect officials who champion the reduction of global warming.

The future of our planet and the reduction of global warming are serious, complex issues. Al Gore is working hard to get the truth out. We all need to help to improve our discussions and our efforts.

Bob Alexander, Michigan Co-Chair Draft Gore 2008

Shared Green Prosperity

Big business has finally realized that there's lots of money to be made in the transition to a clean-energy economy. Proponents call for a progressive eco-populism with an appropriate role for government, that rewards and helps the problem-solvers in the U.S. economy but taxes the hell out of the problem-makers. That can be a winning formula to realign U.S. politics and economics.

http://grist.org/news/maindish/2007/03/20/vanjones/

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Global Warming and Overpopulation

We are heading towards a train wreck, yet few in the public eye are raising the alarm about one aspect of this multi-faceted calamity. As our numbers increase, the human population could exceed our small planet’s ability to sustain it – in fact, we might have already passed this mark – we don’t really know.

The majority of scientists and the public now accept that global warming is an undeniable reality and there has been much discussion of its causes as well as various solutions. However, one area has not received much attention among policy makers and the public, and is the “elephant” in the debate – the contribution of overpopulation to the problem and what to do about it. The issue is, plain and simple, a hot-button and elicits passionate intensity from both the right and the left. It bridges many areas, from religion to civil rights to environmentalism. It is an issue for both sides because it affects us all and the future of our planet hangs in the balance. The time to address this is now.

http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/03/22/train-wreck-ahead-global-warming-and-overpopulation

Coastal Mega-Cities in for a Bumpy Ride

About 643 million people, or one-tenth of the world's population, who live in low lying coastal areas are at great risk of oceans-related impacts of climate change, according to a global research study to be released next month.

The study, by researchers at Columbia University's Centre for International Earth Sciences Information Network and the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, is the first of its kind. The researchers identified populations, particularly urban populations, at greatest risk from rising sea levels and more intense storms due to climate change.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37119

Renewable Energy Credits

Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), also known as "green tags" or "renewable energy certificates", in effect work as a people and business-powered subsidy to renewable energy producers.

The purchase of one credit represents one megawatt hour of clean, green, emissions-free electricity (the average person in the US each year consumes more than 12 megawatt hours of electricity). Though the purchaser of the credit doesn't actually use the electricity himself, the clean power produced is fed into the electric utility grid where it is used by others. This makes it possible for less electricity to be produced from fossil fuels and other non-renewables. From the credit purchaser's perspective, this is often called an energy "offset": compensating for the environmental impacts of consuming un-green electricity. The goal of many REC purchasers is to become "carbon neutral", or to offset entirely the carbon emissions that are the result of electricity consumption.

A typical price for residential RECs using solar power is 2.5 cents per kWh. Using an average annual consumption rate of 12 mWh per person, the annual cost to offset your carbon emissions that are the result of electricity consumption would be $300.

A partial list of REC products can be found here:

http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/markets/certificates.shtml?page=1

Al Gore's Ten-Point Plan to Fight Global Warming

Here’s a video and written summary of Gore’s testimony before Congress detailing his ten-point plan to confront the threat of global warming.

http://fypower.org/news/?p=1017

Gore Honored with International Emmy

The former vice president will be recognized with the Founders Award for his role in launching the cable channel Current TV as well as his ongoing efforts to alert the world to global warming.

http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117961805.html?nav=news&categoryid=1985&cs=1