What Is This World Coming To?

Last year it was revealed that Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for climate change (I thought climate change was ’science’) was among the nation’s worst energy hogs. Al’s carbon footprint was twenty times that of the average American household.

Gore countered by claiming that he buys ‘carbon offset credits’ (which is really nothing more than buying stock in ‘green’ companies. Even after it was revealed that Gore has a majority stake in Global Management, which sells the ‘offsets’. So in essence, Al Gore offsets his carbon footprints by buying stock from himself.)

“A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

This year, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research conducted another study of Al Gore’s domestic carbon footprint. Although Gore claimed to have invested a little cash since to make his home more energy efficient, it seems that the problem isn’t that his home is an energy hog. It’s the people who live in it.

Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations – at a cost of $16,533. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

By contrast, President Bush has been criticized harshly by environmentalists for his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and its mandatory cuts on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.

An April 2001 article in USA Today described the president’s 4,000-square-foot single-story limestone house in Crawford as an “eco-friendly haven.”

“Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into purifying tanks underground — one tank for water from showers and bathroom sinks, which is so-called ‘gray water,’ and one tank for ‘black water’ from the kitchen sink and toilets,” it said. “The purified water is funneled to the cistern with the rainwater.”

In addition, “the Bushes installed a geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses about 25 percent of the electricity that traditional heating and air-conditioning systems consume.”