Gore: Make U.S. electrical energy carbon-free By Sequoia Published: July 17, 2008 Email
Gore: Make U.S. electrical energy carbon-free
The United States should be making all of its electricity with renewable and carbon-free energy in 10 years, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday.
"The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Gore said.
In a speech at Washington's Constitution Hall, Gore touched on an array of the nation's current woes, saying the economic, environmental and national security crises are all related.
"I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously," Gore said.
To begin to fix all the problems, Gore said, "the answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels."
Gore called on the country to produce all of its electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources in 10 years, a goal he compared to President Kennedy's challenge for the country to put a man on the moon in the 1960s.
Gore chastised those who have proposed opening new areas for oil drilling as a solution to U.S. energy problems.
"It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil 10 years from now," Gore said.
New demand from places like China means oil supplies won't be able to meet increasing demand, Gore said.
"The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 a gallon gasoline," the former vice president and Nobel laureate said.
