"Every bit of that has to change"

Al Gore spoke yesterday in Washington D.C.; excerpts below from the NY Times story:

His approach, which would require abandoning old-fashioned, coal-fired power plants, goes beyond what even the most audacious scientists and entrepreneurs have proposed, as a means, he said, of jolting the world out of old ways of thinking. Without great dreams, he said, great deeds are never achieved, citing the quest for the Moon in the 1960s.

“I see my role as enlarging the political space in which Senator Obama or Senator McCain can confront this issue as president next year,” Mr. Gore said.

[snip]

“When we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises,” Mr. Gore said. “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change.”

[snip]

Mr. Gore admitted his plan would, at least initially, drive energy prices higher. But he proposed a payroll tax cut to offset higher prices for fuel and electricity.

He said he envisioned nuclear power retaining its current share of domestic electricity generation, about 20 percent. Coal, which now produces about half of American electricity, would dwindle, while renewable sources, now producing less than 3 percent of the nation’s electricity, would rapidly grow.

[snip]

Last winter, the House failed to enact legislation to require utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Last month, supporters could not even get a Senate vote on a climate change plan that would cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 70 percent by 2050.

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Climate Change, Global Warming

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