Al Gore's Carbon Footprint Sends Wingnuts Into Swoon

This story on Al Gore's carbon footprint Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'? -- A $30,000 Utility Bill, is circling the planet faster than the speed of light. This can of energy worms was apparently opened by The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an outfit that calls itself an "independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions." (But, who are they really? ) Needless to say, every rightwingnut in cyberspace,Rush, Drudge, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, blah blah blah, pissed-off as they all are by Gore's newfound popularity and influence, is using this "story" to supposedly show Gore up as a monster of hypocrisy. I've even found a blog entry purporting to source a Chicago Times article (no link, however) comparing the energy-guzzling Gore household to the Bush play ranch in Crawford, TX, a veritable model of environmental friendliness. Now that one is truly a joke. How a about we get some figures on the White House complex' carbon footprint?

An equal number of folks on the other side are rushing to Gore's defense, but so far, he seems to be perfectly able to defend himself quite adequately: From ThinkProgress:

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.

David Roberts on The HuffingtonPost has these good talking points to help you out when you discuss this story with your global-warming-contrarian-Al-Gore is-a-big-fat-evil-hypocrite friends around the water cooler:

It's nice to see the conservative media taking the message of conservation and energy efficiency seriously. Hopefully they will hold their own leaders and readers to the same high standards.

The Tennessee Tax Dept. does not consider the "Tennessee Center for PolicyResearch," which roughly no one had heard of before this, a legitimate group.It's run by a long-time right-wing attack hack, and its only registered address is a P.O. box. Why is everyone in the media taking what it says about Gore's electricity use at face value?

Gore's electricity company has no record of being contacted about his bills.

The "average" home electricity use quoted by TCPR is a national average that includes apartments and mobile homes. In Gore's climatic zone, the East South Central (Dept. of Energy PDF), the average is much higher, thanks to hot, humid summers and cold winters. Within that zone, Gore's usage is three (not 20) times average, and his per-square-foot usage is squarely average. (More here.)

The Gores are not an average family. He's an ex-VP with special security arrangements, and has live-in security staff. He and his wife both work on their many business and charitable undertakings out of their house, so they have space for offices and office staff. All that would be tough to cram in an average size house.

Gore buys the maximum allowable green electricity from the program offered by his utility.Most of the electricity in TN comes from hydro and nuclear, and sodoesn't generate all that much CO2 anyway.

The larger point, which probably won't work well as a cable-show soundbite but is nonetheless true, is that Gore has done heroic work making global warming a top issue for governments the world over. He has prompted more individual and collective action on this issue than anyone else alive. The changes he has wrought outweigh his personal carbon emissions by many orders of magnitude.

They know Gore's message is winning. They know they are losing. Even if
they're successful in tarnishing Gore, it won't change that.

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