Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Rise And Continuing Fall Of Al Gore

It’s been a bad year for environmentalists. The Earth cooled. Climategate exposed them. And now their Prophet Al Gore has admitted that his push for corn-based ethanol was nothing but pandering to Iowa farmers. In fact, Al Gore seems to keep imploding.

There is little doubt that Al Gore has become a prophet for the environmental movement. In fact, Penn and Teller did an interesting piece where they asked people to describe Al Gore, and to a liberal they all used religious terminology. He was Kool-Aid Obama before Obama.

But the right spotted Al Gore as a charlatan immediately. For one thing, he was known for telling whoppers, like how he invented the internet. But he also showed that he had no qualms with changing his positions to whatever profited him personally. For example, back when he was a mere Senator from Tennessee, sitting in the Senate seat he inherited from his father, Al Gore used to talk about being a tobacco farmer. In fact, he would go around describing how he lovingly planted tobacco plants. This made him sound like a real man of the Earth, which played well in Tennessee. But then he learned that there was more political cache to be earned by being anti-tobacco. So he became the world’s biggest opponent of cigarette companies. . . a position he suddenly claimed to always hold.

At the end of the 1980s, Al Gore adopted environmentalism when he wrote "Earth In The Balance." This was in stark contrast to his ownership interest in Occidental Petroleum or when his family entered the zinc mining business. But he saw environmentalism as his future ticket. So when the opportunity came up, in 1994, he cast the tie vote in the Senate to authorize a subsidized ethanol program in the U.S. This program would eventually spend about $7.7 billion a year to subsidize the production of corn-based ethanol in the U.S.

From the start, everyone knew this program was a bad idea. The environmental value of corn-based ethanol was dubious because the amount of energy required to make this ethanol was only slightly less (or possibly even more) than using oil. A much better alternative was Brazilian sugar-based ethanol, but that would not help US farmers. But since Al Gore wanted to be known as the environmentalist, he wasn't going to let this opportunity pass him by, and he attacked the program's critics as oil-industry stooges. The environmentalists fell in love.

Then Al Gore set about becoming a full-on environmental profit... er, prophet. No, actually, profit is right. For while Al Gore jetted all over the Earth lecturing people about saving the environment, it was soon discovered that he owned a home with the carbon footprint of a small city. And when Al Gore started pushing the idea that people could offset their carbon footprints by buying indulgences, it was discovered that he owned the company that was selling them. Even the offsets he claimed to have purchased himself, were bought from. . . himself. Then Al Gore and Goldman Sachs got into the carbon permit game, trying to buy up carbon permits and using our government to force through a cap and trade scheme that would make these valuable. With the election of the Republicans these things lost more than 90% of their value.

Then a Canadian mathematician (Steven McIntyre) proved that the science behind Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth (specifically his famous hockey stick graph) was fraudulent, and it would produce a hockey stick no matter what data you entered. This was followed by a British judge ruling that Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth contained enough errors that it could not be used as a learning tool in schools. Then the Earth entered a cooling trend that should never have happened according to Al Gore's teachings. This was followed by Climategate, which showed that the whole global warming industry was based on faked data.

Things were not looking good for Al Gore. (Not to mention he was suddenly facing personal problems, like the investigation into possible sex crimes and his surprise divorce.)

And now, Al Gore has admitted that the corn-based ethanol policy that got him started wasn’t a good idea. It has little environmental merit and it created a $7.7 billion a year subsidy that just won’t go away to make room for better environmental programs. . . just as the critics warned. That’s bad. Not to mention that, by diverting all this corn to ethanol, the price of food has been skyrocketing the world over.

But it gets worse because Al also admitted that the only reason he supported this program (which he knew was not a good idea) was that he wanted the votes of farmers in Iowa for his presidential run. In other words, he pushed a policy he knew was bad, while telling us it had benefits it didn’t and unfairly attacking the program's critics, because he knew it would get him votes. Some prophet!

Well, don't worry about poor Al Gore. He's not out of schemes just yet. In fact, he has a new plan for saving the planet that we should all trust: Al wants us to subsidize "second generation ethanol." What do you think are the odds that he already owns stock?

31 comments:

  1. bank on it. What a great feel good story. algore is one of my least favorites of all time; i remember tle left wing press once said of W. that he was born on third base and thought he had hit a triple to get there. What does that say about prince albert in a can? A tobacco hatin', war journalist, internet inventin', environmentalist who had a massive carbon footprint and hoped to cash in big time.

    Well he get an oscar and nobel, and we know how prestigious and fair those awards are. Then, he let hollywood seduce him, got super fat, and fell victim to clinton's disease. Dontcha just love feel good stories?

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  2. Lawhawk, LOL! Now that's a plan! Of course, it's probably environmentally unfriendly to remove all that rust. ;-)

    His fall has really been pretty spectacular and if he wasn't a liberal icon, I think he would have been laughed out of the public sphere by now. But since he is a liberal icon, they will continue to forgive him for some time and will probably fall for his next scam.

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  3. Andrew: Well, my comment went the way of Al Gore. So here's my remembrance of what I said: "Now you've got me worried. Whenever something that big implodes, settled science says it creates a black hole. But Gore can corner the market on the rust in the midwest after his ethanol and cap 'n tax scams fail. Even though he and his fellow ecofreaks created the rustbelt, he can declare that the earth is strangling on rust created by the evil corporations, and only he and his rust-trading scheme can save the earth."

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  4. Jed, It sounds like the makings of a top notch political movie!

    I've always despised Al Gore myself. Not only is he dishonest (even for a politician), but he's the most self-righteous, condescending jerk I can recall. Compared to Gore, Obama comes across like Spencer Tracy or the Pope.

    I will give him credit for being very good at self-promotion among the left, but that's hardly something to commend him. But when it comes to actual skills or knowledge, the guy is a total zero. And he's extremely corrupt to boot. He is the epitome of the modern snake oil salesman.

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  5. Lawhawk, Like Al Gore, I'm sure your comment will be back. But unlike Al Gore, your remembrance of what you said is quite accurate. ;-)

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  6. This makes me wonder if Al Gore can be convicted of being a con man. Hehehehe.

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  7. Joel, That would be great! The problem is that they tend to arrest you if you con a few people, but they make you President if you con large numbers of people. :-(

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  8. Great article, Andrew. This kind of stuff makes me want to scream. Is Algore going to be held responsible for the rising food prices? Who the hell even ever once thought it would be a good idea to our FOOD supply for fuel??!! Whisky Tango Foxtrot!! ARGH.

    I want my pound of flesh from him. And then some.

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  9. Andrew,

    Not if your name is Bernie Madoff!!!!

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  10. Crispy, Thanks! You would probably need to get in line to get that pound of flesh. Fortunately, he's been putting on weight! ;-)

    Yeah, the whole corn-based ethanol thing is truly disturbing. It's cost us billions of taxpayer dollars, made our food more expensive, done nothing to improve the environment, and we're stuck with another meaningless, destructive program that no politician will have the nerve to get rid of. Ug.

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  11. Joel, Good point! LOL! And I see that the FBI raided a bunch of Wall Street offices on an huge insider trading scam too. That's going to be interesting to see how that goes down!

    It would be nice if they held people like Gore accountable for obviously false statements and for profiting from conflicts of interest, but our ethics rules are sufficiently lax that politicians can almost always skate through untouched and much richer.

    What amazes me is that some people will still follow Al Gore and believe everything he tells them, despite all the evidence that nothing this man says is on the up and up!

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  12. I read recently, too, that W's ranch is energy "self-sufficient" using wind and solar. Oddly enough, Gore's mansion sucks up more coal than your average small town.

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  13. DUQ, Yep. But the media doesn't like to report those things because it plays havoc with the "liberals good, conservatives bad" narrative.

    They fought like mad to keep the story about Al Gore's house reaching the public. But it got out anyways because the modern world is no longer a prisoner to the media's filter.

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  14. The whole "climate change" thing is a big red herring. And Algore knows it. This is all about who comes up with the answer to the "renewable" energy source. We do need an alternative to fossil fuels because eventually we will run out and we aren't making dinosaurs anymore.

    Algore wants in on the ground floor 'cause he wants to be the next new Energy Baron. Being a Tobacco Plantation owner just doesn't have the same cache it used to.

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  15. Bev,

    The idea that we will run out of "fossil fuels" is being challenged as we speak. It was always a theory that the flesh of the dinosaurs created the oil. It was flimsy at best. The new speculation is that the earth itself creates oil.

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  16. Bev, I suspect that somewhere, they are still making dinosaurs, maybe in a Russian Zoo or Area 51-A? ;-)

    Seriously though, I think you're on to something. We do need renewable energy sources because we will run out of what we're currently using. And it would not surprise me if Algore was simply using environmentalism as a way to get into that industry on the ground floor and then using his influence with the government as a way to steer future science, money and regulation into his direction.

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  17. Joel, There is a lot of evidence to support that theory.

    When I first heard it, I thought it sounded crazy because I'd always heard the dinosaur theory. But when I started looking into it, I discovered that everyone seems to admit that they don't know where oil comes from. The majority still says it's "biomass," which is dinosaurs plus dead trees and grass and the such.

    But there is some evidence that old oil fields are renewing themselves and that oil is coming from lower in the earth than it should if the biomass theory is correct. So there may be something to the idea that oil is being made by the Earth somehow.

    Plus, now they're thinking that they can make algae that produce oil.

    So who knows?

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  18. Plus Andrew, they also have discovered a certain insect which when fed certain foods creates crude oil as excrement. Oil maybe nothing more than insect sh!t. ;-)

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  19. Joel, One thing is for sure, the world is a lot different than we thought it was when we learned about it in grade school! And we're starting to make incredible breakthroughs in all fields of science. I think this is an exciting time to live, and I can't wait to see what comes next!

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  20. Al Gore makes Bernie Madoff look like a saint. Gore should be in jail.

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  21. Writer X, They could share a cell. . . with "Ramone the Cannibal Taxpayer"! :-)

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  22. Owlgore is a confirmed flim-flam man. The left will not turn on him because they agree with the result of slowing the growth of America. I saw a banner headline the other day on Drudge where environmentalist we’re pleased that the recession has slowed down, wait for it, “global warming/climate change!” Coincidence, I think not. This is all part of the leftist con, and Owlgore is it’s oracle de jour.

    This all must be straightened out in the next few years to save this country. Just think, $7.7billion since 1994 equals $123billion thrown down a rat hole.

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  23. Stan, I agree. And I think we need to take Algore's confession here as an excuse to terminate this subsidy.

    I agree about the left too, they don't care that Algore is a corrupt liar because they share his objectives. And since his goals are the same, they don't care about his methods.... the ends justify the means.

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  24. Mr. Price, I agree that Vice President Al Gore has made mistakes, but who has not? I see no reason to doubt his sincerity. He has dedicated many years of his life to teaching the people about environmental crises and raising awareness of the things we need to do to save our planet. I don't see that as any reason for ridicule.

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  25. Come now Janet, you have to admit that Al Gore has used the environmental movement as a way to get rich and that he lived hypocritically the entire time?

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  26. Haha! Like Jed said, this is a great feel good story! I can't wait for Algore to figure out he can make more money selling dolphin meat! :D

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  27. Ed, Algore brand Dolphin Meat is the highest quality dolphin meat on the market! LOL!

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  28. Al Gore is a serial Grad School dropout. See, e.g.:

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/763182/posts

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  29. Libertarian Advocate, I didn't know that! Hilarious! I guess there was no way to turn that into a profitable activity? ;-)

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  30. Algore Brand Dolphin Meat -- LOL! He could sell Algore All Natural Polar Bear Steaks too. ;-)

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  31. Hmmm.... polar bear steaks! Actually, I would think they would be very, very greasy.

    I'm reminded of that Simpson's episode where Monty Burns has all of the endangered species made into clothing -- he sings a brilliant parody of a Disney song from "Beauty and the Beast." They could remake that with Algore in the title role!

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