Gore-ging on Energy, One Year Later Gore's Home Energy Use Climbs 10%

June 17th, 2008 6:05 PM

In February of 2007 a small group named the Tennessee Center for Policy Research published an interesting little story that made Al Gore, the king of global warming alarmism, look a tad foolish. The report that TCPR sent out showed that Al Gore's own home was an energy hog. The TCPR report revealed that Al Gore's Tennessee mansion used more energy each month than the average American household uses in an entire year. In a response to this report, Gore claimed that he was diligently working to make his home more green, but now it looks like Gore is being gored again because a year down the line his energy use hasn't gone down. It hasn't even stayed level. It actually increased by 10%. How will the media handle this bloated increase despite Gore's claims of trying to improve?

In 2007, to a sensational reception the TCPR noted that the Gore family burned through energy at an amazing rate saying, "Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh -- guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359."

Not long after, Gore answered his critics on the website of Think Progress, an extreme website run by the Center for American Progress and funded by left-winger George Soros.

Vice President Gore’s office told ThinkProgress:

1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.

2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint -- a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:

What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero.

The most telling aspect of the 2007 report about Gore's energy use is that he never disputed the facts. He admitted that he used that much energy, but claimed that he was trying to bring that usage down.

Well, we have waited a year to see the evidence of the Gore family's efforts to bring that carbon footprint down to zero. And, with a follow up report, the TCPR decided to look into Al Gore's usage of energy to see how well he did in improving his high energy use.

Unfortunately for the king of global warming, he didn't do so well.

The new report shows Gore actually increased his energy use despite all the supposed efforts to make that ol' carbon footprint equal "zero."

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations – at a cost of $16,533. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Ooopsie.

So, from the man telling you to reverse your standard of living to the dark ages, the Gore household continues to gobble up more and more energy every month than you would in a year.

As TCPR says, actions speak louder than words. I'd dare say with all the hot air emanating from the expanding girth of the former VP about global warming, with all the many private jet flights across the world, and with his constant scolding of the rest of us to stop using so much energy, this news once again makes Gore look the hypocrite.

Last time this news was a Drudge bombshell. The MSM reluctantly picked up on it after it became the talk of the blogs and talk radio. Will this newest report revealing Gore's continued hypocrisy also become big news, even if only briefly?

I guess, we'll see.