Gas Guzzling Gore - Road to the Middle Class

WHO can fail to be heartened by the news that Al Gore’s house is a real energy hog. The chaps at the Tennessee Center for Policy Research went through Gore’s electric utility bills and they found that Gore is burning up more than 20 times the average household in his posh Tennessee house.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

What with natural gas for the house and the pool and the guest house,

In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.

But what about President Bush? He’s a Texan, after all, and a friend of the oil companies. What about his energy usage?

Here’s what free-lance reporter Rob Sullivan found at Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch. It makes him seem like a tree hugger.

Bush has a heat pump with the heat exchanger deep in the ground—the most efficient way to economize on energy for home heating and cooling.
“A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern.”
“There’s a great grove of oak trees to the west that protects [the house] from the late afternoon sun.”

How could this be, Sullivan fumes, when Bush thinks it’s ok to put arsenic in drinking water? And anyway, how dare he have a 4,000 sq ft house when there are single mothers and Latino immigrants who have to make do with far less.

But isn’t that better than Al Gore, with an energy bill bigger than the salary of a single mother working full time at $15 per hour? And that’s just on his house. Forget the energy bill for his private jet travel.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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