Al Gore's Electric Bill

After a conservative friend of mine lambasted Al Gore for his very high electric bill, I felt I needed to look into that matter further. As with my previous post, I think it’s important to understand what Arnold Kling was saying in his article at TCS Daily. So, here is my opinion.

Due to recent revelation of Al Gore’s electric bill, many conservatives (new and old, theo-con and neo-con) are now or continuing to decry Gore as a hypocrite. I offer a different take. What I believe is that Mr. Gore’s fault doesn’t lie in political maneuvering, but rather his unfortunately false belief that buying carbon permits is the same as conservation. Once again, this is touched on by Arnold Kling:

If you are not really all that worried about carbon emissions, but you get pleasure from making empty, self-righteous gestures, then do what Al Gore does -- buy carbon offsets.

Once again, I don’t believe that Al Gore is acting in terms of political maneuvering; I merely think his logic is flawed in terms of how he should help the environment. But if you still feel the need to lambaste Al Gore on his purchasing of carbon offsets, then maybe we should sit down and have a talk about farm and sugar subsidies.