Missing the Point

No Al Gore apologists seem to get the point these days.

Daffodil Lane meekly attempts to defend Al Gore's energy consumption by recycling Keith Olbermann's talking points and trying to change the topic to that Gore's energy costs more because they are using green power. Oh, and it's all OK because Gore buys "carbon credits,"; we'll get to those later.

As we noted, the original report does not deal with the cost of Gore's energy, by that Gore uses 20 times as many kilowatt-hours of electricity as the average consumer. Something Gore, as of yet, has not denied. And Bill Hobbs notes:

As the news media swarmed around the story of Gore's gargantuan energy consumption yesterday, Gore's people touted his purchase of "carbon offsets" as evidence that he lives a "carbon-neutral" lifestyle, but the truth is Gore's home uses electricity that is, for the most part, derived from the burning of carbon fuels. His house gets its electricity from Nashville Electric Service, which gets its from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which produces most of its power from coal-burning power plants. Which means most of the power being consumed at the Gore mansion comes from carbon-emitting power sources.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, check out this complete stupidity. TaxProf Blog notes this from the New York Post:

HOLLYWOOD'S wealthy liberals can now avoid any guilt they might feel for consuming so much non-renewable fossil fuel in their private jets, their SUVs, and their multiple air-conditioned mansions. This year's Oscar goodie bag contained gift certificates representing 100,000 pounds of greenhouse gas reductions from TerraPass, which describes itself as a "carbon offset retailer." The 100,000 pounds "are enough to balance out an average year in the life of an Academy Award presenter," a press release from TerraPass asserts.

Yes...free carbon credits. The Hollywood crowd now even gets their indulgences for free, while lecturing the rest of us about the need to be carbon neutral. The Virginian compares them to sumptuary laws that regulated the social hierarchy.

Then there are Dianne Feinstein and Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the LA Times:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein offers plenty of tips on how California households can combat global warming, such as carpooling and running only a full dishwasher.

But one bit of information Feinstein declines to share is the number of times that she flew last year on her husband's Gulfstream jet, which burns much more fuel per passenger-mile than commercial airliners.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also has asked constituents to do their part to conserve energy — including cutting summertime power consumption — even though he takes to the skies on leased executive jets.

Aides say there is nothing contradictory between the pro-green pronouncements and the flying habits of the Democratic senator and Republican governor.

Some environmentalists aren't so sure.

"There appears to be a discrepancy between calling on people to make personal reductions and using a private jet that exacerbates the problem," Clean Air Watch President Frank O'Donnell said.

Flying on a Gulfstream rather than an airliner is like driving a sport utility vehicle instead of riding a bus, O'Donnell and others say.

In a lot of these cases, the moral of the story is "Do as I say, not as I do." Sadly, their apologists cannot see the forests for the trees and really understand what is going on here.