Drew Johnson of the National Center for Public Policy Research investigates the environmental impact of former Vice President Al Gore‘s home.
In February 2007, the day after his panicky global warming film “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Academy Award for best documentary, a shocking report based on public records revealed that Al Gore’s Nashville home consumed 20 times more electricity than the average American household.
Facing scrutiny for his extreme electricity consumption, the former vice president pledged to renovate his home to become greener and more energy-efficient. …
… In powering his home, Gore still greatly outpaces most Americans in energy consumption. The findings were shocking:
• The past year, Gore’s home energy use averaged 19,241 kilowatt hours (kWh) every month, compared to the U.S. household average of 901 kWh per month.
• Gore guzzles more electricity in one year than the average American family uses in 21 years.
• In September of 2016, Gore’s home consumed 30,993 kWh in just one month – as much energy as a typical American family burns in 34 months.
• During the last 12 months, Gore devoured 66,159 kWh of electricity just heating his pool. That is enough energy to power six average U.S. households for a year. …… Excluding the costs associated with the ductwork replacement project, an extremely conservative estimate of Gore’s renovation costs ends up well over $250,000. A more reasonable assessment of the price Gore paid for increasing his home’s energy efficiency is closer to half a million dollars.
All the money Gore spent to make his home more energy efficient made very little impact on his actual energy consumption. After paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to lower his electricity consumption, the house still burns through 20 times more electricity than the average American home.