Al Gore Is A Moron

About a year ago, Al Gore's monthly energy costs were big news. Al and the Gore clan live in a swanky mansion outside Nashville, and according to the local utility companies, they use about 10 times as much electricity, water, and gas as a typical single family home. There's also the massive amount of carbon dioxide Al Gore emits flying in a private jet around the world, telling everyone that doing things like flying private jets is going to destroy the world next week.

Of course the global warming skeptics pointed to this hypocritical behavior and basically called Al a modern day snake oil salesman. Al's counter? He buys carbon offsets, in his eyes, his carbon footprint is non existent.

The theory behind carbon offsets is this - people who have large carbon footprints "buy" unused carbon emissions from people who are not using their allotted amount. This begs the question - who determines how much carbon one person is allowed? Great question. Does anyone know who determines this magical number? Wait - since carbon is so bad, wouldn't it be better if we just do less carbon emitting activities instead of buying imaginary offsets that really don't reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the first place?

Anyway - back to Al's mansion - shortly after the story broke last year, Al made a pledge to make his house more energy efficient - solar panels, compact fluorescent light bulbs, geothermal heat, etc. To his credit, he actually did install said items. And what good did it do? Ironically enough - about the same amount of good as buying a carbon offset. Instead of reducing the amount of energy used, Al's efforts to make his home greener resulted in a massive increase in energy use.

According to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research:

"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."

Just to put those numbers into perspective - Al Gore uses enough energy in one month to power over 200 typical American homes for a month. I bet Al keeps the AC pumping 24 hours a day too.

And in case you're wondering how Al can afford the $16,500 monthly energy bills, it's estimated that he has increased his wealth by about $100 million thanks to global warming speaking fees and investments that did very well thanks to global warming hysteria.