An Inconvenient Electric Bill

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

AEON

Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Joined
Nov 9, 2004
Messages
4,052
Location
California
I found this on Drudge this morning. Hopefully Gore can use the profits from his documentary to pay his electric bills...

POWER: GORE MANSION USES 20X AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD; CONSUMPTION INCREASE AFTER 'TRUTH'
Mon Feb 26 2007 17:16:14 ET

Nashville Electric Service/Gore House

2006

High 22619 kWh Aug – Sept
Low 12541 kWh Jan - Feb
Average: 18,414 kWh per month

2005

High 20532 Sept - October
Low 12955 Feb - March
Average: 16,200 kWh per month

Bill amounts

2006 – $895.60 (low) $1738.52 (high) $1359 (average)
2005 – $853.91 (low) $1461 (high)

Nashville Gas Company

Main House
2006 – $990(high) $170 (low) $536 (average)
2005 – $1080 (high) $200 (low) $640 (average)

Guest House/Pool House

2006 – $820 (high) $70 (low) $544 (average)
2005 – $1025 (high) $25 (low) $525 (average)

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization, issued a press release late Monday:

Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.

Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

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.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.

In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.
 
It's being reported all over the place, not just in the Drudge Report. Supposedly the state of TN doesn't consider that group to be legit, I don't live there so I have no idea if that's true

He's also been criticized for using private jets. The reality is that if you promote that and expect others to live it, you open yourself up to intense scrutiny about your personal lifestyle.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/GlobalWarming/story?id=2906888&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Kalee Kreider, a spokesperson for the Gores, did not dispute the Center's figures, taken as they were from public records. But she pointed out that both Al and Tipper Gore work out of their home and she argued that "the bottom line is that every family has a different carbon footprint. And what Vice President Gore has asked is for families to calculate that footprint and take steps to reduce and offset it."

A carbon footprint is a calculation of the CO2 fossil fuel emissions each person is responsible for, either directly because of his or her transportation and energy consumption or indirectly because of the manufacture and eventual breakdown of products he or she uses. (You can calculate your own carbon footprint on the website http://www.carbonfootprint.com/)

The vice president has done that, Kreider argues, and the family tries to offset that carbon footprint by purchasing their power through the local Green Power Switch program — electricity generated through renewable resources such as solar, wind, and methane gas, which create less waste and pollution. "In addition, they are in the midst of installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power," Kreider added. "They also use compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy efficiency measures and then they purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero."
 
MrsSpringsteen said:


The reality is that if you promote that and expect others to live it, you open yourself up to intense scrutiny about your personal lifestyle.


I agree.

But a bill alone doesn't have any context to it. I'm not the biggest Gore fan, but I'm not ready to call him a hypocrite just yet due to his electricity bill.
 
politicians piggyback causes all the time... gore is no different than anyone else. one would imagine that within the next 6 months, the gore residence will go green, if only to counter the negative publicity... which is a good thing either way ya slice it up.

and he does face extra scrutiny from being behind this cause. if the guy throws a soda can in the wrong garbage can, someone will make a big issue of it, fair or not.
 
Last edited:
:shrug:

gosh, since Gore just might fall short of what he preaches, this must mean global warming is the greatest hoax ever brought up on the American people.

go drive your cars!
 
forget global warming... gore still needs to tackle the issue of manbearpig.

manbearpig-al_gore.jpg


i'm super serial
 
you know what just occured to me?

Bono's a huge hypocrite. he and U2 could probably personally forgive the debts of at least one or two African nations.

but those hypocrites are too interested in their mansions in Eze or tax havens in Amsterdam to care about the world's poor. the lesson: no one should care about the world's poor. if Bono can't live up to what he preaches, then we shouldn't have to either.
 
Irvine511 said:
you know what just occured to me?

Bono's a huge hypocrite. he and U2 could probably personally forgive the debts of at least one or two African nations.

but those hypocrites are too interested in their mansions in Eze or tax havens in Amsterdam to care about the world's poor. the lesson: no one should care about the world's poor. if Bono can't live up to what he preaches, then we shouldn't have to either.

Yup I had the same (sarcastic) thoughts. In a perfect world, it would be great for everyone to do exactly what they say, but that's not reality is it? I haven't watched the docu yet, but just b/c people don't always do exactly what they advocate for doesn't mean what they are saying isn't true. It just means nobody's perfect :wink:
 
Poor Melissa Etheridge I wonder what the teary eyed woman thinks of her Man now. :laugh:
 
U2Man said:
well, if those numbers are true, gore does have a credibility problem.

Al Gore pays for offsets. He's talked about them quite a bit if you've gotten to see him live. I'm not sure why it wasn't included in the documentary, because it has been part of his lecture series.

This is another swiftboating attempt.
 
anitram said:


Al Gore pays for offsets. He's talked about them quite a bit if you've gotten to see him live. I'm not sure why it wasn't included in the documentary, because it has been part of his lecture series.

This is another swiftboating attempt.

Defending a hypocrite?
 
Justin24 said:


Defending a hypocrite?

I don't think you should call him a hypocrite. The awareness he's raised due to his speaking and movie more than offset the amount of electricity he uses. You want him to work by candle light? Then he'd get in troule for sending phosphourous into the atmosphere from the matches. Give the guy a break <-- and this coming from someone that doesn't really like Gore.
 
yes but he uses more energy than a regular household. Maybe he should down size and live in middle class neighborhood and be with the people.
 
Justin24 said:
yes but he uses more energy than a regular household. Maybe he should down size and live in middle class neighborhood and be with the people.

Maybe the middle class people should downsize and live in the lower class neighborhoods to be with the people. They can splice power from the street lights. Think of all the seals we could save!
 
I swear I don't get some of you. You go around and bash the fuck out of Bush. Gore who is going around slamming the administration about it's lack of doing something to stop global warming uses 20times more energy than a regular house hold. And he still complains about the war in iraq, while that oil lights his house at 30 grand a month.
 
Justin24 said:
I swear I don't get some of you. You go around and bash the fuck out of Bush. Gore who is going around slamming the administration about it's lack of doing something to stop global warming uses 20times more energy than a regular house hold. And he still complains about the war in iraq, while that oil lights his house at 30 grand a month.


but even if Gore is a hypocrite, that doesn't mean he's wrong about global warming and it doesn't negate the good work he's done spreading awareness.

i don't think the comparison to bashing Bush holds water in this particular situation. i think it makes more sense to compare the people who are bashing Gore over this to the people who bash Bono for advocating debt relief and then moving many of U2's assets into the relative tax haven of The Netherlands when part of Irish taxes are used for things like African debt relief and charitable giving.
 
Back
Top Bottom