AL GORE Hypocrisy

[SniperSB23]

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.

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.

[brianwspencer]

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.

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.

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.

[sham]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

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.

Metaphorically, Big Al is buying and consuming someone's unused water rations instead of the water being poured back in the well. The feel good part is that he can assuage his conscience by believing that the money will be used to successfully find more water. The disingenuous part is that the guy drinking more than his share of the water is the very one going around telling everyone that they must conserve the scarce water supply.

As to Big Al's choice to use renewable energy for his mansion, I'm betting that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provides his power. Hydroelectric power is their principal product and is really the only home energy option available in that part of the world. No "green" points there.

By the way, water is not nearly so scarce as Big Al would have you believe.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

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.

How the heck does the number of rooms in your house have anything to do with electricity consumption? I recently moved from a 2 room apartment to a 6 room house and my electricity consumption is exactly the same. Just because I have six rooms doesn't mean I have every light turned on in all of them. Yeah, having a bigger house is going to take more natural gas so his average of $1080 a month for natural gas isn't that staggering. The electricity numbers though truly are staggering. I'd love to see what wastes of electricity he has going in that house.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

How the heck does the number of rooms in your house have anything to do with electricity consumption? I recently moved from a 2 room apartment to a 6 room house and my electricity consumption is exactly the same. Just because I have six rooms doesn't mean I have every light turned on in all of them. Yeah, having a bigger house is going to take more natural gas so his average of $1080 a month for natural gas isn't that staggering. The electricity numbers though truly are staggering. I'd love to see what wastes of electricity he has going in that house.

Well when I think about my electric bill, it certainly fits. The more you have to heat a house, the more electricity you use. It's not like you just turn on the natural gas and that's the only thing involved. When I use air conditioning and heat in my apartment, the electricity skyrockets from the use of the equipment needed to deliver that cool/heat.

I'm not implying he's perfect or that he couldn't use less -- I'm just saying that there are a lot of electrical things that are going to go into keeping a home like that (which he and Tipper work out of) running on a daily basis.