Al Gore's Call for Carbon Free Electricity
I just joined an overflow crowd in DAR Constitution Hall for former Vice President Al Gore's excellent call for carbon free electricity in 10 years.
You can watch the whole speech at
www.wecansolveit.org
meanwhile here are the 10 essential points that set forth change we can make -- all presented to thunderous applause from the thousands gathered in DC:
1. Call on all candidates to support carbon free electricity in 10 years.
Together we can fuel electricity with renewables.
2. Tell the vested interests that even those who reap the benefits of the carbon era acknowledge the inevitability of its demise -- the Stone Age did not end due to a shortage of stones.
Go defend the status quo to the American people and you'll see the huge appetite for change!
3. Act now -- we the American people do not have don't have 10 years of high prices and troop deployments to dangerous places
4. Improve our national grid
5. Develop plug-in cars to save jobs
6. Improve our broadband to increase efficiency
7. Create jobs with sunshine and good wages for those who have been bringing us energy such as our coal miners
8. Tax what we burn not what we earn
9. Restore American leadership in the world. At the end of the year go to Copenhagen to help craft a global climate change treaty needed to reduce emissions. Moving first in the world effort is in our own national interest
10. Solve dysfunctional politics. Don't believe those who say we cannot reduce prices with a plan to drill for oil we can use 10 years from now. Some in Congress stampeded by special interests. The truth is that change in China will increase demand and prices -- the one thing we can do is to end our dependence on oil and fuel our cars with renewables.
Gore concluded: This is a generational moment!
On July 16, 1969 the Apollo mission answered JFK's call to put a man on the moon within a decade.
Today (July 16, 2008), we must lift our nation to reach a new goal ... a new journey of discovery and exploration ... another great leap for humankind!
Overall, a phenomenal call to service for a generation of Americans hungry for change. Gore's speech ended to the U2 "Beautiful Day" soundtrack and an energized crowd ready for action.
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Why didn't he bring up nuclear power stations? Are we really that scared of them still? These are great always-on plants (unlike wind and solar) that would be a nice component of a baseline electricity power need. We can supplement them with solar and wind, because during daylight there is more sun (obviously) and more wind activity. The peak need hours are also during the daytime. Problem solved, right?
No, nuclear does not address the problems of cars and transit, but plug-in cars doesn't address the biggest polluters, buildings and industry.
I'm more interested in why impeachment is still "off the table". What about FISA and the torture memos? Maybe mom will be a little more forthcoming to you(?).
Wolf Blitzer used viewer questions to interview Speaker Pelosi. One question was "Why was impeachment taken off the table?" Pelosi answered to prevent Congress from being "tied up." The follow up question should have been "What successes has this Congress achieved by not be "tied up" in an impeachment?" It wasn't asked.
Another question could have been "Given your decision not to investigate Bush, what is there to prevent a FUTURE president from acting/beening as incompetent and criminal as Bush?" That question wasn't asked either.
"9. Restore American leadership in the world. At the end of the year go to Copenhagen to help craft a global climate change treaty needed to reduce emissions. Moving first in the world effort is in our own national interest
10. Solve dysfunctional politics. "
With all due respect, 9. is the height of dysfunctional politics. Gore always "caveats" his claims with the avenue that allows for carbon use, cap and trade. His own investment fund will profit from it.
How will you charge your car at night if there is no wind? Unless he means to build 100+ nuke plants, it's not possible without natural gas and coal.
90% of oil used in the USA is for vehicle transportation. The focus should be on conversion to electricity and/or hydrogen. Purpose-to get us off foreign oil. This carbon fad is a distraction.
Yes, Al Gore is not the cure. Democrats years ago started focusing on cars and oil replacement. Then came the carbon craze and its cohorts. the people who know knew what to do in the past. Al Gore didn't invent this, he helped steer the drive AWAY from independence.
Al Gore is a true American hero and a citizen of the world. He and Obama give me hope, a quality that I have missed during the last eight abysmal years. This is a defining moment in our history, and if we are to leave our children anything worth saving we MUST rise to the challenge. This is a moral imperative and a practical one as well.
We did it in World War II, we must do it now. There is going to be a lot of change, and it won't be easy. Al Gore inspired me last night, and it is now time for action. This would surely be a different, much better world had he rightly been installed as president instead of the shameful, shameless Bush. And the right would still be trying to pillory him, but he knows who he is and would have withstood it. Now we must clean up the mess and withstand the slime to be thrown non-stop from those who have eaten the earth and wiped their feet on our Constitution. But they have had their day.
If we grew Industrial Hemp on just 6% of our land mass of the lower 48 states we could run all of the energy for America now matter what it was used for including electricity....and it eats CO2 like crazy and spits out oxygen...
Feh. Biofuel.
Besides we don't grow crops on 6% of our landmass as it is.
Hemp may be one of the best / easiest to grow natural fibers (though it has several competitors), and its illegality may be somewhat ridiculous... but many of the claims of its proponents are exaggerated at best, laughable at worst. They are trying to conflate the (worthwhile) issue of marijuana legalization with the (worthwhile) issue of industrial hemp. It's some exceptional wonder-plant able to magically outgrow every other plant in existence, given the same water/nutrients/sunlight.
"Eating CO2 and spitting out oxygen" is called photosynthesis, the basis for which all plants function.
In a post-carbon world (where we've basically eliminated the emission of geological carbon), it would be economical to grow enough biofuels for the very highest-value uses (running a plane on batteries or an extension cord is less than possible), but not much more - the world eats too much, and with the unpredictable effects of climate change, farmers are going to have to expend a hell of a lot of effort just to figure out ways to preserve current crop yields.
Every time Gore speaks I am nearly brought to tears because he makes me recall all we could have accomplished and all we have lost in the last eight years. This issue above any other is the reason to vote for Obama. You may be rich and not want to get taxed, you may think we can succeed in making a lasting democracy in Iraq, you may think direct diplomacy in dealing with dictators is wrong, you may feel betrayed by Barack's compromise on FISA, you may think that abortion is murder...but guess what? You cannot be pro-life and still cling to the "global-warming-is-hoax" argument. Barack Obama understands this as Gore does, and though McCain says he wants to tackle global climate change, his off-shore drilling position betrays this. The strict pro-lifers decided not to take their own advice by spearheading an immoral war based in cowardice and deep seeded fear of all things Middle Eastern, will the impending deaths of 6.5 billion force them to finally vote "liberal" (I still can't believe the environment is a political issue)? I ask everyone with an open mind (and forcefully ask those that don't) to truly examine who is the party that believes in preserving life. WE NEED TO ACT NOW!
The last eight years? Try the last thirty years, Carter tried to start getting America to realize the coming energy crisis. But Reagan and Cheney laughed him out of town.
Lou Dobbs, playing the CNN Bill O'Rielly role, laughed at the notion of "carbon-free" electricity in just ten years. Gee, the America which built 24 fast aircraft carriers, hundreds (thousands???) of other Naval vessels, 50,000+ tanks, millions of rifles, thousands of howitzers, tens of thousands of aircraft.....
And we can't build thousands of windmills, photovoltaic units, dozens of reactors... I'd call that down right unAmerican of pompous Lou.
But wasn't he the vice president once? Didn't he have the chance to develop a national energy policy back in the 90s, when it would have been easier to implement? What happened?
But wasn't he the vice president once? Didn't have the chance to develop a national energy policy back in the 90s, when it would have been easier to implement? What happened?
A republican Congress more concerned with BJ's than environmental and energy policies, who also liked to yell out "wagging the dog" when Clinton tried to go after Al Qaeda.
The elections of 1994(which swept into power the current brand of Republicanism) and the scandals of the following years happened to that moderate, pro-globalization Democratic president - who wouldn't have begun to accept such a radical agenda from his VP (a position which at the time was considered roughly equivalent in power to a clone for organ-farming purposes).
The amount of concern about energy is roughly proportional to the price of oil, which was at *record* lows in the 80's and 90's, even putting a lot of the oil industry out of work, and killing any trace of alternative energy development. When gas was $1/gallon, Gore was trying to get the gas tax raised by 50 cents. Gore strongly pushed for Kyoto and arranged several predecessor meetings, but was rebuffed by a 95-0 vote in Congress on ratifying it. At the time, noone cared, the scientific community was just beginning to have a consensus that the ozone hole and deforestation were really happening, much less an assessment on how much of a threat global warming was.
To add to all this, alternative energy simply wasn't anywhere near as developed as it is now. The 100kw truss wind turbines at Altamont Pass are an entirely different animal than the sleek 6MW monsters going up now - to the tune of 1/10th the cost. Same with comparing old low-volume heavy silicon photovoltaic - there was controversy on whether it was even possible to make the panels energy-positive.
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Yes, great speech.
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Omama should beg him to take the VP slot.
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I was there. The announcement of the 10 year goal brought the house to its feet. Let's do it.
What could have been if he had been installed as president instead of whom we have now.
It took less than ten years for us to get from barely able to get to orbit, to landing on the Moon. The engineering issues are about the same.
Unfortunately, had Gore been elected president, he wouldn't have had the time to do the environmental research needed to get him where he is today.
totally different challenge, the problem is of a much greater magnitude in terms of cost and societal/infrastructure changes needed...it's a noble goal, and i'd love to see it come to pass...but 10 years? i wouldn't bet on it
i heart al gore!
Gore concluded: This is a generational moment!
Yes! see my profile for how to get there.
The era of dirty fuels is ending starting now.
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