Al Gore: Self-Governance is Overrated

Posted by Enrique on 07.24.2008

Portrait of a man at wit’s end



It's easy to sympathize with former Vice President Al Gore. After all, if I had been denied the presidency by a partisan Supreme Court a year before 9/11, and had to watch the ensuing Bush Doctrine unfold over the next several years, the whole time thinking about what I would have done differently, it would have driven me mad. You have to admire Gore for holding it together as well as he has. He managed to redirect all of that negative energy into winning a Nobel Prize, and good for him.

But sometimes the mask slips just a bit, and we get a sense of the broken, disturbed individual lurking within. Last week, Gore gave a speech in Washington in which he called on America to commit to renewable energy, and eliminate all fossil fuels within 10 years. Obviously, the man is sick. Even so, most folks are too polite to point out the transparent insanity of Gore's scheme, and many people actually take this twaddle seriously. For our story this week, let's have a look at Al Gore's proposal to wean America from carbon-based energy, and lament the descent into madness of a man who might have been President.

The story so far…

You can read a transcript of Gore's remarks here. To say the speech is melodramatic would be the essence of understatement. It opens with:

"Ladies and gentlemen: There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment.

Jumps right in with both feet, doesn't he? I suppose if you want to hold an audience's attention for a serious speech on a science-y topic, you need a killer intro. I might have broken the ice with a lighthearted joke, but Gore has a bigger picture in mind. He immediately strikes a sinister note with "either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside." If that doesn't strike you as ominous, imagine John Ashcroft saying it. He might as well have said, "We will cast out the unclean!" Here are a few other highlights:


"[O]ur weather sure is getting strange, isn't it? There seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory, longer droughts, bigger downpours and record floods. Unprecedented fires are burning in California and elsewhere in the American West. Higher temperatures lead to drier vegetation that makes kindling for mega-fires…Scientists in the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University tell us that for every one degree increase in temperature, lightning strikes will go up another 10 percent. And it is lightning, after all, that is principally responsible for igniting the conflagration in California today."

I can appreciate looking at the Big Picture as much as anyone, but I have a hard time understanding how we're going to control the weather within my lifetime. That's at the heart of Al Gore's argument – human beings have the power control lightning and droughts and tornadoes (oh my), and only our cruel dependence on fossil fuels has prevented us from harnessing this power. Is Gore being serious? Maybe I can't appreciate looking at the Big Picture after all.


"[W]hen you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf."

How convenient. Maybe our dependence on fossil fuels is the reason public schools are failing as well. The way Gore tells it, you'd think committing to the exclusive use of renewable energy will solve all our problems. If you're asking people to drastically reorient their lifestyles, you have to make a lot of promises. It's usually the Republicans that invoke "national security" when they're pushing some damned fool idealistic crusade, so kudos to Gore for recognizing a winning strategy when he sees it. He probably wishes he could take that strategy back in time eight years.


"Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today…Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness. It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now."

Did I read that right? Did Al Gore just question the legitimacy of our democracy? The word choice of "self-governing" is spine-chilling. Al Gore seems to be saying that self-governance isn't all that great. Sure, we all have a laugh complaining about politics, but at the end of the day, most of us believe American-style democracy has more positives than negatives. Apparently, Al Gore begs to differ. That's creepy. If that doesn't strike you as ominous, imagine Dick Cheney saying it. I understand Al Gore feels slighted by our system of self-governance, specifically Florida's system, but I'm not moved by his totalitarian impulses.

In fairness to Gore, all politicians (and former politicians) are prone to paternalistic windbaggery, so his big speech was far from exceptional in that regard. And he does have a Nobel and an Oscar, so it's fair to say a lot of folks find his arguments persuasive. And really, how can you be opposed to renewable energy? It's like being opposed to fun things and nice people. It would be nice if I could power my home with electricity gleaned solely from wind/solar sources, just like it would be nice if my kitchen faucet magically produced a never-ending stream of Edy's® chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Renewable energy sources simply don't produce enough power. The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens looks at the numbers (emphasis in original):

In 1995, the U.S. got about 2.2% of its net electricity generation from "renewable" sources, according to the Energy Information Administration. By 2000, the last full year of the Clinton administration, that percentage had dropped to 2.1%. By contrast, the combined share of coal, petroleum and natural gas rose to 70% from 68% during the same time frame.

Now the share of renewables is up slightly, to about 2.3% as of 2006 (the latest year for which the EIA provides figures). The EIA thinks the use of renewables (minus hydropower) could rise to 201 billion kilowatt hours per year in 2018 from the current 65 billion. But the EIA also projects total net generation in 2018 to be 4.4 trillion kilowatt hours per year. That would put the total share of renewables at just over four percent of our electricity needs.

Stephens also notes that Gore didn't deign to mention nuclear power in his speech, despite the fact that it has a proven track record. But the numbers aren't even necessary to rebut Al Gore's doomsday forecast – his own behavior is evidence against his argument. On Meet the Press this week, Tom Brokaw asked Gore about the energy needs of his 10,000 square foot home in Tennessee, and how often he flies on private jets. Gore excused himself by saying he uses public transportation much more frequently than private aircraft, and that he and Tipper's home is carbon-free. Also, Gore helpfully observed, "I don't claim to be perfect."

That's dandy Al, because you're far from perfect. If the environment were truly in cataclysmic danger, you'd live in a bungalow and conduct most of your public speeches by web-conference. If you don't behave as if it's a crisis, how are the rest of us supposed to take you seriously when you demand absurd sacrifices? Even though President Bush has been less than stellar during his two terms as POTUS, I'm eternally grateful the increasingly megalomaniacal Gore lost in 2000. Thank goodness for self-governance.