What's Al Gore's real motive when it comes to global warming?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
While Al Gore warns about the dire consequences of global warming, apparently one of those consequences is that he's filling his pockets - big time. The New York Times reports that few stand to profit as much from the green energy revolution as the former vice president does.
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Critics say he could become the world's first "carbon billionaire." They suggest Gore is profiteering by promoting government policies that would drive billions of dollars into companies he's invested in. Some say he's fattening his wallet by what they call alarmism and exaggerations about global warming.
Gore insists that he's just putting his money where his mouth is. He says his investments are consistent with what he's been advocating for years.
The Times reports that Gore has invested millions of dollars in environmentally friendly energy ventures; things like carbon trading markets, solar power, electric vehicles and waterless urinals. Actually - we could probably do without those.
The former vice president has also given away millions to a nonprofit he started and to another group focused on climate change. Plus he's invested in areas like technology and media with no ties to the environment.
Bottom line here: Al Gore is not a lobbyist, and has never asked the government for funding or a specific law that would directly benefit one of his investments. But, he has advocated relentlessly for policies that would get the country off using coal and oil... while investing in companies that could make this happen.
Here’s my question to you: What is Al Gore’s real motive when it comes to global warming?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Gore’s call for carbon-free electricity in 10 years “ridiculous”?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Al Gore says it will be like the challenge of landing a man on the moon.
He's calling on the United States to switch all of this country's electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years.
Gore says our dependence on carbon-based fuels is at the core of our economic, environmental and national security crises. Here's how Gore sums up our dilemma. "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change."
The former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner says the most important policy change will be to tax carbon dioxide pollution. Gore's bipartisan group estimates the 30-year cost of his plan is between $1.5 and $3 trillion.
But some energy experts say Gore's plan moves way too fast, that the country won't be able to go "cold turkey" and get off fossil fuels in a decade.
Others are even more critical. Republican Senator George Voinovich says it's "ridiculous" to think the nation could go carbon-free in 10 years. He says "We could take and put wind mills from the Atlantic to the Pacific and yes, it will increase the amount of carbon-free energy production, but the fact of the matter is, it's not going to get the job done."
Coal supplies about half of the nation's electricity. It's also responsible for more than a third of the country's carbon dioxide pollution, which is most often blamed for global warming.
Here’s my question to you: Is Al Gore’s call for carbon-free electricity in 10 years doable or “ridiculous”?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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