Power: Gore Mansion Uses 20x Average Household

Yeah, he should probably be living in a shack with solar panels, growing his own food, distilling rain water, and riding his bike to speeches....What a dick!

I also saw this morning where they get their power from an energy source that uses renewable resources or something like that and they also said they are in the process of updating the home and adding solar panels. I don't like Al Gore that much as a politician but it sounds like he is trying. I think you have to look at this for what it is, more political crap that happens by the other side (by both republicans and democrats) when ever someone is in the news for something positive.

farfromglorified wrote:

Hypocrisy is certainly not unique to liberals. However, hypocrisy is hypocrisy and on this scale, it's simply absurd.

Tennessee's power comes from mostly fossil fuels (non-renewable) and hydroelectrics (renewable). Furthermore, the home is also using direct natural gas (nonrenewable) at an astounding rate.

Gore is at best a fool, and at worst a fraud.

I see what you are saying but you shouldn't be surprised..he is a politician. It just sounded like to me like he was trying to change which is good.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254908,00.html


Al Gore responded to charges that his house consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, with the new Oscar winner saying he has taken many steps to reduce the carbon footprint in his home.

The former vice president and former presidential candidate told Thinkprogress.org that he has signed up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installed solar panels and uses compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy-saving technology. He said he also buys carbon offsets — a service that tries to reduce the net carbon emissions of individuals or organizations indirectly, through proxies that reduce their emissions and/or increase their absorption of greenhouse gases.

"What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible," said Thinkprogress.org. "Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gores do, to bring their footprint down to zero."

A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced. It is measured in units of carbon dioxide.

Gore was responding to a report issued by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, which, citing figures from the Nashville Electric Service, said that since last August, Gore burned through 22,619 kilowatt-hours at his house — more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. His average monthly electric bill topped $1,359, the report said.

Click here to read the research center's press release on the report.

The report also cited the release of his global-warming documentary for which he won an Oscar over the weekend, "An Inconvenient Truth." In this film — which has won fountains of praise from many circles, including many in Hollywood — Gore calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

Since the release of "An Inconvenient Truth," the report said, 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. Natural gas bills for Gore's mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year, the research center said.

"As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use," Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson said in a statement.

You wanna see a true environmentalist, watch "Living with Ed", Ed Begely's reality show. If Al lived they way he does then he would have my respect, but all these years of preaching about the environment and now he's trying to reduce the carbon footprint of his mansion? Walk the walk first Al, then talk the talk.

ThumbingMyWay32 wrote:

Owning such a large house is a matter of choice; not a burden he's forced to accept. Parts of his documentary were filmed while guzzling fuel at an obscene rate in his private jetliner. Other parts while touring the nation in gas guzzling SUVs and limos. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Except here, he's having trouble understanding his own rhetoric.

Beautiful........"failure to communicate"....great use of a line. It's this double standard that seemingly haunts Al in his quest for power......figurative and literal.

baraka wrote:

Uh, I'm not telling you anything. I had just read that particular article (one of many this morning on various subjects) before I came here and saw this thread and thought it was pertinent. Honestly, I'm not real versed in the subject of "Green Power". Although I do use 'green' products in my home.

Hehe...I didn't mean you, baraka, I meant you, Al Gore. I'm glad you posted his response.

Is there anyway around gratuitous energy consumption when you own such a large house, really?

Not really, though there would be many ways around gratuitous emissions. Nuclear power, wind farms on the large land that probably comes with that large house, real solar infrastructure throughout the property instead of window dressing panels.

It just bugs me that Al Gore is going to cop out here and talk about "Green Power Switch". All that is is a subsidy you pay to help the TVA deploy renewable sources. And while contributing to that is great, it doesn't offset 221,000 kwh of usage. If only 400 households did exactly what Al Gore was doing, they would consume the total output of the "Green Power Switch" off the grid.

We use what we have now while making changes for the future. It's not that hard to comprehend, guys. I'm no huge Gore fan (though I don't really have a problem with him), but he is turning his mansion "green."

No one expects us all to live in caves. No one really wants us to go without. The call is for different technology, not an appeal for an ascetic lifestyle.

ThumbingMyWay32 wrote:

Al Gore is a hypocrite because he doesn't practice what he preaches. People who support the war aren't hypocrites because they aren't serving.

No, it's pretty much the same. Practice what you preach, dude.