Chilling out Gore

Exposé that the “Inconvenient Truth” man has an inconvenient lifestyle? Well not quite

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
3/3/07
http://www.mytown.ca/zepp
 

Hours after Gore received his Academy Award for the documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the ambush attack was launched. Kristin Hall, uncritical newshen for the AP, breathlessly reported that “A conservative group” calling itself the “Tennessee Center for Policy Research” reported that Gore’s home energy use was ten times that of a “typical Nashville household.” The story goes on to claim that Gore used 221,000 kilowatt hours in 2006, and that the group knew this because they obtained his energy use documents from the utility, Nashville Electric Service. You have to go near the bottom to find it, but the story states, “But company spokeswoman Laurie Parker said the utility never got a request from the policy center and never gave it any information.” AP claimed to have reviewed the bills and came up with an energy use figure some 15% lower, but it’s evident that unlike the “Center,” AP remembered to factor in the surcharge that the utility charges for energy use above about a thousand kilowatts a month.

It’s pretty unlikely that the “Tennessee Center for Policy Research” was interested in any niceties like finding out how much energy Gore actually used, or where the energy came from, or–and this was the main thing they were clucking indignantly about–if he had a large carbon footprint or not.

The “Center” appears to be one of those “two-right-wing-assholes-with-a-website” kind of things that the well-funded far right likes to use to pepper the public discourse with falsely authoritative sources. According to an unnamed Usenet source, “Tennessee Center for Policy Research is run by a 27 year old Bush Cheerleader who loves Bush's Wars, Jason Drew Johnson. The Center lists a post office box number as its address which makes sense since occupancy costs were $450 for the year. The IRS requires 501(c)(3)s to disclose the names of board members and officers which the Center fails to do. The 990 is signed by Jason A. Johnson who presumably is related to Drew Johnson, listed as the Center's president on the website. Total salary expense for 2005 is $52,213. Despite a tight budget, the Center's managed to spend $8,155 on meals and travel. Marketing expense is $5,934 but no money was spent on research.” Including, apparently, looking up utility bills, which are public records. The site itself is devoted to debunking global warming, and offering “free market solutions,” presumably to free market problems. I looked over the list of “scholars” they had, presumably in the hope people would think they had something to do with the site, and none of them were in the fields of climatology or energy use.

So the whole news story came from a false-front “think tank” that couldn’t even be bothered with getting its information first-hand, or capable of giving it a fair review if they had.

Every day, the AP dismisses such “news flashes” from nobody crackpots as a waste of their time. But this one was about Gore, and would sell newspapers. So they went with it.

Gore’s home energy use (which has grown to TWENTY TIMES the average household in the right wing echo chamber of Faux News, Drudge and Free Republic) somehow escaped the keen scrutiny of the media. If they had bothered checking, as I did, they would have learned a few things that demonstrate that not only is Gore’s energy use reasonable for his needs, but that his carbon footprint–that thing the right wingers are supposedly upset about–is very much less.

First, there’s his “household”. It consists of four structures, not one, and has a cumulative square footage that is 15 times that of a regular single family home. (The average Nashville household has a pretty good chance of living in an apartment, which is smaller and more energy efficient than a stand-alone house, too). One of those structures is for Gore’s secret service detail, who are on duty 24 hours a day. Another is for his non-profit foundation. Most average households don’t have the energy demands of the secret service or a foundation to deal with.

Despite all this, Gore spent less per square foot on his “household” than the average Nashvillian did.

But it doesn’t stop there. A lot of Gore’s energy bill went toward premium pricing on green energy sources or offsets. A premium that worked out to 4 times the rate per kilowatt the utility normally charged. According to Gore’s office, this accounted for roughly half his energy usage. So, in fact, his actual energy consumption in terms of CO2 releases may have been three times that of the average household in Nashville, despite the fact that it was four buildings with fifteen times the area.

There were a couple of other factors. First, there was the fact that Gore bought a large, wasteful spread and had been making it more and more energy efficient as construction began the year before to remodel the place into a more energy efficient place. Gore intends for it to be a model to show what can be done with existing structures. Even as the “high electric bill” ambush attack was launched, Gore was having solar panels installed.

A lot of right wingers were demanding that Gore move into a small house. A generous size might be 1,000 square feet, in their estimation. But they quickly dried up and blew away when I asked if they wanted to make it a government policy that everyone must live in a small house. Apparently it’s the old Republican situation in which they like to demand that others live up to rules that they themselves have no intention of observing. Energy conservation, like morals, like taxes and jail time, are for the little people – and traitors to their class.

Speaking of which the Wall Street Journal online weighed in on all this. They spent some time sputtering about the inequity of “energy offsets,” oblivious to the fact that they insisted on such offsets as a compromise in order to cut back on their own waste and pollution. They had more money than will to conserve, and didn’t mind paying to sustain their lifestyle. But now the Wall Street Journal decided the best way to discredit Gore way was by waging class warfare against the rich. For those who want a good laugh, the article is here.

The rich white trash were appalled at the fact that Gore spent $500 a month to heat his pool. Nobody is quite sure where the rich white trash got this particular “fact.” Maybe, living up in New York and Connecticut and Rhode Island, they asked one another, “Well, how much do you spend to heat YOUR pool?” and came up with a consensus answer.

There’s just one problem. Gore doesn’t live in Connecticut or Rhode Island. He lives in Tennessee. And, as with most of the American south, his energy bills are modest in the winter – often as low was $300 a month – and soar during the summer. Not surprising, since the south enjoys mild winters and is unfit for human life the rest of the year. It costs a lot more to stay cool in the summer than it does to get warm in the winter. And nobody spends $500 a month to warm a pool in Tennessee. Nobody. Not even Al Gore. The whole story was nothing more than another right wing lie by the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

So, once again, the right wing tries to get its way with lies and smears.

But this isn’t 1998. People KNOW they are liars and smear artists these days, and there are a lot of us prepared to show their lies and smears for what they are.

And, like the “Kerry-hates-soldiers” smear last fall, or the “Pelosi-and-the757" a few weeks ago, this smear blew up in the right wing’s lying faces.

In the meantime, they have to ignore the fact that their hero, Ann Coulter, just called John Edwards a “faggot” and pretend they hardly even know who Coulter is.

The morality of the right is a rare and amazing creature, isn’t it?