The Madness of Gore

Is Al Gore out of his mind? Or is he simply issuing a difficult challenge that he knows can’t be met, but will stimulate the country toward a positive effort?

It’s hard to tell, given his speech in Washington last week, calling for the U.S. to replace all – that’s 100 percent, folks – of its electric generation with renewables in a decade. We’re talking 2018 here.

Speaking in Washington at DAR Constitution Hall, Gore called on the U.S. to “commit to producing 100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.” What does Gore mean by “renewable and truly clean” energy? He defines his sanctified technologies as “solar, wind, and geothermal power.” That clearly does not include nuclear, demonstrating that Gore is not serious about his challenge.

Gore also apparently eschews any form of  hydropower, current or future. All generation from fossil fuels — coal, natural gas, or oil — is out of bounds. These nasty generation technologies, his policy implies, should be stamped out in 10 years. Gore asserts, with no evidence, that this goal is “achievable, affordable, and transformative.”

Gore’s goal is, of course, political poppycock. It is not just impractical and uneconomical. It is impossible, and he knows it. If he doesn’t, he’s a moron; I don’t believe he’s stupid. But he is selling an elixir that, despite it’s glowing promise, cannot work.

But the practicality of the proffered goal may not matter to the former vice president. He seems to be launching what he sees as a challenge similar to John Kennedy’s call in 1960 to put a man (a U.S. man, that is) on the moon in 10 years. Said Gore, “When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal.” We did, of course, in less than 10 years, a great engineering accomplishment.

Since then, advocates of many national policies, no matter how improbable, have cited Kennedy. If we could put a man on the moon, why can’t we eliminate poverty in 10 years? Why can’t we eliminate homelessness in 10 years? Why can’t we guarantee low-cost access to quality health care in 10 years? Why can’t we have a car battery that makes electric vehicles commercial in 10 years? Why can’t we eliminate fossil fuels in 10 years? And so it goes.

None of these challenges are the equivalent to the moon walk. All are more complicated and much more difficult.
The replacement of fossil fuels is way more daunting than the moon shot, largely an engineering and management challenge. Gore acknowledged this. “To be sure,” he said, “reaching the goal of 100% renewable and truly clean electricity within 10 years will require us to overcome many obstacles. At present, for example, we do not have a unified national grid that is sufficiently advanced to line the areas where the sun shines and the wind blows to the cities in the east and west that need the electricity.”

Well, duh? Got a spare trillion dollars?

What does Gore propose to remedy this national transmission weakness? Nada.

The former veep’s speech was entirely empty rhetoric. No surprise there. His career is full of fulsome rhetoric and empty practicalities. There is simply no way his call for a 100% (non-nuclear, non-fossile) generating infrastructure in 10 years is even plausible.

Gore won’t acknowledge that he’s pushing snake oil and moonbeams, because he believes he’s advocating a righteous longer-term agenda. “Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that fell well beyond the next election,” argued Gore, citing the Marshall Plan, Social Security, and Eisenhower’s interstate highway system.

Gore’s citations from 20th Century history are ill-chosen. They rely on incoherent science and unforeseeable policy outcomes. Al Gore is the current definition of a false prophet, as was George W. Bush and his war in Iraq. My final judgment: Al Gore is out of his mind in his war on global warming.