This stuff about Gore's energy use has been going around the 'net for a while, but there are always some facts inconveniently left out such as --
* The Gore home is NOT an average home. It is four times larger than an average home, it is used as an office for both Al and Tipper, and this is a 70-year old home! They were not built energy efficient back then. (The Bush residence is relatively new.) HOWEVER --
* This year Gore was finally given the green light by city planners to install solar panels and other green additions at his mansion. Previously, town zoning laws did not permit residents of the upscale neighborhood to install solar energy technology because they were considered generators, and therefore, unsightly. Gore had been quietly protesting these laws for some years, but when an audit of his energy use surfaced in February he was raked over the coals, even though plans were underway to make his home more efficient and eco-friendly. Now he's able to make green renovations in addition to the solar panels; he is also upgrading the furnace, windows, and light switches, as well as installing new floor radiant heat and solar vents, to improve the home’s energy standards
(ref:
http://www.ecorazzi.com/?cat=21&paged=3)
* Gore pay a premium in order to get some of their electricity from Green sources. He purchases enough energy from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and methane gas to balance 100 percent of his electricity use.
Sometimes when people don't like the message -- in this case that global warming is real -- it's convenient to attack the messenger. Should Gore work on the energy consumption level of his house? Yes, of course, and he IS doing so! Should the
current energy consumption of his home obscure his efforts to alert the country and the world to an impending crisis, as this sniggering account tries to do? Of course not!
Individual homes aside, this is a scurrilous attempt to divert attention from the fact that Al Gore (as a private citizen without any responsibility to lead the world) has worked very hard to draw attention to and to find solutions for the problem of global warming. Meanwhile George Bush (as President of the greatest country on Earth and thus the person with the greatest responsibility of anyone on Earth to lead the world) has dragged his feet in getting our country to pay attention to this impending global crisis.