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Al Gore

Al Gore

Posted: June 16, 2010 09:27 AM

The President's Oval Office Address and What's Next

What's Your Reaction:

I applaud President Obama's call for a comprehensive legislative solution to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil gusher is just the latest and most tragic reminder of the environmental, economic and human consequences of our addiction to oil and other dirty sources of energy.

The president is right to focus on stopping the spill and working to limit, to the degree possible, its impact on the Gulf ecosystem. But ultimately the only way to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again is to fundamentally change how we power our economy. Placing a limit on global warming pollution and accelerating the deployment of clean energy technologies is the only truly effective long-term solution to this crisis.

Now it is time for the Senate to act. In the midst of the greatest environmental disaster in our country's history, there is no excuse to do otherwise.

This post originally appeared at Al's Journal.

 
 
 
I applaud President Obama's call for a comprehensive legislative solution to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil gusher is just the latest and most tragic reminder of the environmental, ec...
I applaud President Obama's call for a comprehensive legislative solution to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil gusher is just the latest and most tragic reminder of the environmental, ec...
 
 
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10:43 PM on 06/20/2010
Sunny Spain suspends solar subsidy

€18bn flushed down the baño

"Dead broke Spain can't afford to prop up renewables anymore...

Estimates put the investment in solar energy in Spain at €18bn - but the investment was predicated... on taxpayer subsidies... Incredibly, Spain pays more in subsidies for renewables than the total cost of energy production for the country. It leaves industry with bills 17 per cent higher than the EU average...

Spanish economist Professor Gabriel Calzada, at the University of Madrid estimated that each green job had cost the country $774,000.

Worse, a "green" job costs 2.2 jobs that might otherwise have been created... Industry, which can't afford to pay the higher fuel bills, simply moves elsewhere."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/17/spain_sustainability_scam/
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ReedYoung
global mean land-ocean temperature 1880 to present
08:37 PM on 06/20/2010
"Now it is time for the Senate to act."

The Senate really is just the place where good ideas go to die, isn't it? Every story, every subject, it's the Senate that's in the way. Maybe we should just disband it and transfer all its powers to the House of Representatives. The Senate just over-represents the under-educated states, anyway.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Imo Verit
08:32 PM on 06/20/2010
1. Hydrogen injection retrofit on all gasoline and diesel engines.
2. LED lighting in all homes and businesses.
3. Power saver/conditioners on all breaker boxes.

There, I just lowered the carbon footprint by 10% – 40% using existing technology. I will accept the Peace Prize whenever. Now excuse me while I go invest in some technology.

http://www.h2andyou.org/caseStudies_injection.asp
http://www.ecogeek.org/efficiency/3110-led-lighting-would-save-america-120-billion
http://www.powersavestore.com/
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Christopher Daley
08:09 PM on 06/20/2010
I really like how so many people have become experts on this. Ground the airplanes that will do the trick. The truth is until India & China jump on board with clean energy the world will never be able to go green.

www.csdaley.com
08:06 PM on 06/20/2010
What clean energy solution would that be? it would take an area the size of the state on CT to power a city the size of Cincinnati. I'd like to know where is the utopia that this new system works? We are fortunate enough to have vast reserves of oil and coal, most people like to heat their homes in winter, until there is actually a green energy company that can turn a profit it would be economic suicide to put more taxes on energy on the backs of hard working Americans. Can someone tell me what green energy is abundant and fairly cheap? a 5Kw solar system runs $25k how many here have bought one? In this economy more taxes on people is just like driving us over a cliff. I hear green jobs from Obama but the only thing I see Obama has done is lose jobs 17% real unemployment ...and now tax energy? are we looking for 30% unemployment? is that a goal with these guys?
If we didn't have climate change we wouldn't be here and that is a fact. A misguided group think their going to save the Earth while the kill the inhabitants in poorer countries using corn for ethanol to put in gasoline, why when there is abundant oil would you let people starve?
06:21 PM on 06/20/2010
The 'SUN' heats and cools off over different periods of time. Thus the heating and cooling changes over time. Man has nothing to do with it. Scientists do not know the history of the SUNS cycles over the millinium. No data is available.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fight The Right
06:28 PM on 06/20/2010
who cares what the cause it, the flooding of our coastal cities is still a problem.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kucheka
07:39 PM on 06/20/2010
As if the models don't take the sun into account!

"In the last 35 years of global warming, the sun has shown a slight cooling trend. Sun and climate have been going in opposite directions."

http://skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming.htm
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nonpartay
♫Nonpartisan, liberal, ex-conservative♫
11:00 PM on 06/20/2010
Thanks for posting the Skeptical Science website. It's really a good one!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
bighat
Truth as I see it
06:20 PM on 06/20/2010
The first thing Obama should do is to ground all flights.

Only the President and the military should be allowed to fly
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnlcallen
08:18 PM on 06/20/2010
That'll definitely help the environment. It will destroy our economy and send us all back to the stone age.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nonpartay
♫Nonpartisan, liberal, ex-conservative♫
11:01 PM on 06/20/2010
Well, of course, we can't do that. But we could develop jet fuel that is non-polluting. It has already been done, actually, so this should be encouraged.
06:17 PM on 06/20/2010
For 60 days you and I have watched our neighbors on the Gulf Coast lose their coasts, beaches, marshes and wildlife, while proven solutions for actually CLEANING UP THE OIL are being stopped by government regulators.

I can't imagine an excuse that justifies the devastating environmental loss, and the total lack of co-operation from the federal government to actually CLEAN UP the Coast, but I can post articles and releases that will spread the word and hopefully move people in government to end this bureaucratic nightmare.

There are small businesses and regular "small" people who understand the need to CLEAN UP the Coast, can do it and who need the red tape to end! These are their homes and their coasts and they know how to 'get 'er done' (thanks Larry!) if they are not forced to waste their time convincing a regulator or being charged $30,000 to get a validation that may take 6 months.

I'm kidding, right? Nope. Maybe, you just need a little common sense. 60 days without paying attention to actually CLEANING something.

Here's a Headline: FEMALE-OWNED REMEDIATION FIRMS, WITH GULF SOLUTIONS STALLED BY BUREAUCRATIC RED TAPE

We, acting as Americans together, can clean the Gulf Coast if the government gets out of the way. If the enviros stop spelling clean r-e-s-t-o-r-e. If the EPA will fast track solutions from small businesses. If the President says it should be so!

http://gulfcoastcleaning.blogspot.com/
stirmon@gmail.com
mlewis@libertycapitol.com
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
lisakaz2
Da ministero dell'interno di Snark.
06:06 PM on 06/20/2010
Wish you were in charge of the clean up, sir. I don't think BP woulda gotten away with that toxdic dispersant at least.
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RudyHaugeneder
06:08 PM on 06/20/2010
Meanwhile, the NY Times says the equivalent of this BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurs every year in the Niger Delta of Africa -- and has for decades -- and supports the claim with photos.
"As many as 546 million gallons of oil spilled into the Niger Delta over the last five decades, or nearly 11 million gallons a year," experts said, according the the newspaper.
But, of course, nobody in America cares because it happens in Africa. Shame on us.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
lisakaz2
Da ministero dell'interno di Snark.
06:32 PM on 06/20/2010
Gotta wonder if anyone can compel a Big Oil Co. to act there.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nonpartay
♫Nonpartisan, liberal, ex-conservative♫
11:03 PM on 06/20/2010
Seems like a heluva lota oil for those oil companies over there to just lose like that. Are you sure that's really what's going on?
05:46 PM on 06/20/2010
I wonder how different the siruation would be now if environmentalist Al Gore had been president for eight years instead of oilmen Bush and Cheney.
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kirtlandpat
In the right. Not on it.
06:05 PM on 06/20/2010
Higher taxes...and a better world in so many ways. Don't blame me....I voted Gore....as did the majority.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nonpartay
♫Nonpartisan, liberal, ex-conservative♫
11:06 PM on 06/20/2010
Why do you say higher taxes? Without 9/11 (Gore would have paid attention to the intel and done something about it, I'm sure) and the Iraq War, it's quite possible we wouldn't have needed higher taxes. Democrats tend to be fiscally responsible, remember? It's Republicans who talk a good game about fiscal responsibility and then spend like drunken sailors. Reagan raised taxes 19 times during his presidency. A shame more people aren't really up on all the facts concerning all this.
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tinkertoy
Smarten up the Chumps
07:33 PM on 06/20/2010
It probably wouldn't have happened because he would have people in place who aren't snorting cocaine off the asses of their regulators who let oil drilling rigs fill out their own safety paperwork.

While I'm thinking about it, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 9-11 attacks, the subprime meltdown, all may not have happened.

We would be so much farther down the road with electric rail systems, photovotaic cells powering the batteries in our cars, with the uninterrupted respect of the world. It would be a different place.

The mind boggles.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nonpartay
♫Nonpartisan, liberal, ex-conservative♫
11:07 PM on 06/20/2010
It certainly does. I try not to think about it. It just gets me incredibly upset. :(
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Nonpartay
♫Nonpartisan, liberal, ex-conservative♫
11:54 PM on 06/20/2010
For some reason, your comment about Lieberman didn't get posted, but OMG, I forgot about him. LOL That is kind of a scary thought at that, though maybe if he were VP, he might have settled down into a nice relaxing obscurity. ;)
03:33 PM on 06/20/2010
I fear my time here is done for today. Look at all things with a skeptical eye. Assume first that they are lying to you and make them prove to you that they are telling the truth. If you come at this issue from that view point, you will quickly find that, while there is intriguing hints at something happening to our planet, there is not enough evidence to support the mad rush to give government more power over our energy sources and to increase the cost of those energy sources.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fight The Right
03:40 PM on 06/20/2010
I fear lack a of action may doom us all. I find nothing intriguing about what is happing in the gulf.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fight The Right
03:43 PM on 06/20/2010
Al Gore is looking for answers, but is demonized for trying to find a free market solution to the problem it thought this would be right up your alley.
03:28 PM on 06/20/2010
Very good article on this convenient accident.

Mounting evidence shows disaster was deliberately contrived either through conscious negligence or outright sabotage and is being allowed to worsen

States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill

http://www.prisonplanet.com/states-need-to-launch-criminal-investigation-into-bp-federal-governments-role-in-oil-spill.html
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fight The Right
02:33 PM on 06/20/2010
Al Gore is a great man.
02:42 PM on 06/20/2010
I cannot deny that. He was the Vice President of the greatest nation on earth, so what else would he be? He is also extremely wealty. Most of that money comes from products directly tied to "green" industries. His carbon footprint is monstrously huge, however, by comparison to the average citizen. He claims he offsets that with "carbon credits" but these are smoke and mirror words to allow him to do what he wants us to stop doing. He is a prince among me. The problem is, he acts like it.
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Fight The Right
02:55 PM on 06/20/2010
the world needs find answers were are yours...other than Drill baby Spill