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The Repentance of Al Gore
Via CNN.com
Al Gore, who was criticized for high electric bills at his Tennessee mansion, has completed a host of improvements to make the home more energy efficient, and a building-industry group has praised the house as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly.Just last week I heard someone criticize Gore for his house. Do you think this information will permeate the discourse over Gore and global warming?
The former vice president has installed solar panels, a rainwater-collection system and geothermal heating. He also replaced all incandescent lights with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs -- even on his Christmas tree.
"Short of tearing it down and staring anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher," said Kim Shinn of the U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.
(It's unclear to me that this is true repentance--in the sense that apparently the Gores were in the process of improving their house when the original criticism was publicized earlier this year.)
5 comments:
Solar panels and geothermal heating? Sounds a little like damage control. Actually, the geothermal heating is probably just an ordinary heat pump.
I would still be interested to know how much energy his mansion uses compared to the average sized American home without "green" features.
From the article, it looks like it's about 10 times the average Nashiville house. It was an existing mansion purchased in 2002.
So, is it greener to live in a smaller house or to use expensive (and energy intensive to construct) "green energy" sources in a larger house with a larger net footprint?
What does that question reveal? What do the answers show us?
btw, from the article:
"In February, a conservative think tank criticized Gore for using an average of 16,000 kilowatt hours a month for an average monthly bill of $1,206 in 2006. The typical Nashville home uses about 1,300 kilowatt hours a month."
and
"Gore's improvements cut the home's summer electrical consumption by 11 percent compared with a year ago, according to utility records reviewed by The Associated Press. Most Nashville homes used 20 percent to 30 percent more electricity during the same period because of a record heat wave"
So, his carbon footprint from the house is still large, though the house also includes office space, for which he deserves credit.
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