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Originally Posted by sham
Well here's the answer. We can use any and all the energy we want. No worry. All you got to do is buy sufficient "carbon offsets" to cover your use and there will magically be zero polution.
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Originally Posted by SniperSB23
That's pretty much how I take it. Obviously having a mansion and a guest house are going to use more energy. However with him using 20 times the average (on top of whatever energy he is getting from solar power) I have to feel he could do a much better job conserving instead of just paying money to offset his usage. It is the attitude of I am rich and can afford to recklessly use energy while you peons must conserve that disgusts me.
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Sham,
Do you really understand how carbon offsets work? I'm not trying to put up a blind ass-cover for Gore, sure he could use less energy. With a house that size, he will still of course, use more energy than most.
Think of it this way. His bill is 20x the average bill. Of course it is, he has a 20 room house. I'm sure that "non-partisan" group conveniently left out how they calculated their average, using every single energy user, including those in studio and one-bedroom apartments all over the country. I would fully expect that someone with a house 20x bigger than my apartment would use 20x more energy than me. That's not news to anyone.
Carbon offsets used to help decrease your carbon footprint are a great thing. It is always those who don't understand how they work, as if it is some fictitious way to just throw away money to make oneself feel good, who are quick to dismiss the idea.
It also states quite clearly that his energy is coming from green energy sources, which is exactly what he wants people to do -- cut down on their non-envirofriendly energy consumption.
I wouldn't call it a "smear," per se. I would just call it a non-issue because the whole stink is about the raw numbers of his energy use and not about the notions of where it is coming from, how it is being offset, etc etc. It's all sort of boring and convenient. Everyone's gotta have a rallying cry, I guess. Some of them just manage to make them over things that are actually important.