Al Gore, Prohibitionist

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

Economist friend Dr. David Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute based at Suffolk University in Boston, had this to say yesterday in response to Al Gore's speech on going 100-percent to renewable sources for energy generation:

"Al Gore wants to be Rachel Carson but has revealed himself to be Carrie Nation. He talks about protecting the environment, when all the while he really just wants to banish fossil fuels from the marketplace.

"There is no better example of his prohibitionist mentality than his recent demand that the United States produce 100 percent of its electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources in 10 years. Only about 30 percent of our electricity currently comes from these sources. The question is what will happen to the fossil fuels that are used to make the remaining 70 percent, once those fuels are no longer used to produce electricity. The answer is that they will find their way to the market place to be used, as they are now, to produce energy, whether in the United States or abroad.

"A “strategic initiative” that is aimed at substituting alternative fuels for fossil fuels in the production of one kind of energy is doomed to failure unless it somehow eliminates the value of using the same fossil fuels to produce other kinds of energy. If Mr. Gore really wants to spur the United States and other countries to use alternative fuels to produce electricity or any kind of energy, he should just sponsor legislation to prohibit the use of fossil fuels. Otherwise, he is just blowing smoke."

Beacon Hill has weighed in on the absurd economic claims promoted by various state climate commissions.