Noted in The Washington Times, Inside Politics, Page A6, Friday, March 23, 2007, compiled by Greg Pierce.
"It's not easy being green. Just ask former Vice President Al Gore, the Fox News Channel's Terry Keenan writes at www.foxnews.com.
While the newly anointed Oscar winner has made what Katie Couric called a 'triumphant return' to Capitol Hill on Wednesday { 3/21/2007 }, Gore was tripped up by a simple question from Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe. Late into the hearing, Inhofe showed Gore a clip from his film, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' The clip challenged the audience with this question: 'Are you ready to change the way you live?'
"Simple enough. But Inhofe took this question a step further, by placing it right at the foot of the former vice president. Correctly noting that Gore is adored by hundres of thousands for his green message, Inhofe asked the Tennessee Democrat if he'd be willing to pledge to 'consume no more energy for use in your residence than the average American household by one year from today?'
"It was a 'gotcha' moment, and one that was not widely reported in the mainstream media. Mr. Gore refused to take the pledge, adding that 'We live a carbon-neutral life.'
"Get read to hear a lot about carbon-neutral living in the days and months ahead. It's the new euphemism for Escalade-driving environmentalists who 'purchase' carbon credits to assuage any guilt about their private jets and 20,000-square foot summer homes."
"
Great clipping and yes, one heck of a gotcha moment. That fat bastard Michael Moore would have been proud, though being the liberal leaner that he is, he would never have gone after AlGore to begin with.
{ edited to add the embedded video/link here }
{ that clip really is priceless }
Carbon-neutral is most definitely the new buzz-word for Gore and his followers. As the blurb notes, it's all about trading credits needed to make up for the bad behavior to get back to carbon-neutral status. It reminds me of holy-roller church goers that are sitting in their Sunday best listening to the sermon on Sunday to make up for their sinfulness on the other 6 days of the week.
And gee, trading credits... it strikes me that there was some sort of big trading system that went belly up and helped lead to a big meltdown in the stock market back a few years ago. Of course that trading system was for trading energy, rather than carbon credits, but both work in much the same way. Enriching the traders and the trading system while not really doing a thing for the masses.
AlGore and his friends get to preach to the rest of us that we all need to be green while they buy these credits to offset the harm that keeping up their luxurious lifestyles is continuing to do to the environment. As an example, has anyone really checked to see just how much pollution and greenhouse emmissions are generated by the power plant that is generating the $30,000 worth of electricity that Gore's palatial estate in Tennessee uses? He can claim to be carbon-neutral, but that does nothing for the people that live around the power plants that are involved, nor for the coal miners that are digging coal, or the oil workers that are pulling the black gold from the ground to burn in that plant.
Great job Al { Borat mode on } NOT! { Borat mode off }
Excellent job and /salute to Sen. James Inhofe. Great way to turn the tables on AlGore and his friends.