Appropriately enough after Al Gore's Oscar win with An Inconvenient Truth, we find that Gore faces a few inconvenient truths of his own.
Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
While it is unsurprising that Gore is an energy hog, the amount he is using is a little shocking. I wonder if he's planning to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs any time soon?
UPDATE: No surprise, Al Gore is decrying the unveiling of his electric bills. According to 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...
It's nice that Gore is trying to reduce the huge amount of energy his own family uses, but I seem to recall during the original Kyoto hysteria that purchasing carbon offsets by big business was considered "cheating" by the enviro-nuts. They thought American industry should go in the tank because of the restrictions the Kyoto Protocols would place on businesses and that any deal to prevent strangulation of American business wasn't kosher. But now, when Gore is using as much energy in a month as the average American does in a year, purchasing carbon offsets is all right? Even with the purchases, it seems like an outrageous amount of energy for any enviro-nut to be using.
Nuts at HuffPo are foaming at the mouth that the Tennessee Center For Policy Research got Gore's bills and are already setting up the "rightwing smear machine" excuse.
We're going to fight back. All of us.
Why? Well, first of all, Al Gore turning his lights on doesn't make him a hypocrite, it makes him a human.
Second, we've seen this game a few too many damn times. The trick is for them to create doubt and distraction. They need to create doubt all around the country about Al Gore. But there is no doubt.
Al Gore is a hero.
Well, Gore is a hero only if you consider lying about one's individual contributions to life, holding questionable fundraisers, and making a "documentary" filled with questionable claims is heroic. But expect to hear people who would denounce George W. Bush for leaving a light on too long to keep making excuses for Gore.
UPDATE x2: Captain Ed has a nice rebuttal to the "but he bought carbon credits to offset his use" argument.
He may retort that he purchases carbon waivers that help fund efforts to clean the environment and reduce global warming to balance his large energy usage. I'd respond: so? The point that the global-warming alarmists make is that we have to stop releasing carbons in order to reverse the "crisis", as they called it over and over again, not to create a rations market that acts like a parasite to the energy market. If the situation is as dire as Gore painted it in An Inconvenient Truth and at the Oscars last night, then one might expect a little more self-discipline from the chief alarmist disciple.
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