Gore's Inconvenient Mines

John Fund on the hypocrisy:

The mines had a generally good environmental record, but they wouldn't pass muster either with the standard Mr. Gore set in "Earth in the Balance" or with most of his environmentalist friends. In May 2000 the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued a "Notice of Violation" notifying the Pasminco mine its zinc levels in a nearby river exceeded standards established by the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. In 1996 the mine twice failed biomonitoring tests designed to protect water quality in the river for fish and wildlife. "The discharge of industrial wastewater from Outfall #001 [the Caney Fork effluent] contains toxic metals (copper and zinc)," the analysis stated. "The combined effect of these pollutants may be detrimental to fish and aquatic life."

The Gore mines were no small operations. In 2002, the year before they shut down, they ranked 22nd among all metal-mining operations in the U.S., with total toxic releases of 4.1 million pounds. A new mine operator, Strategic Resource Acquisition, is planning to reopen the mines later this year. The Tennessean reports that just last week, Mr. Gore wrote SRA asking it to work with a national environmental group as it makes its plans. He noted that under the previous operator, the mines had, according to the environmental website Scorecard, "pollution releases from the mine in 2002 [that] placed it among the 'dirtiest/worst facilities' in the U.S." Mr. Gore requested that SRA "engage with us in a process to ensure that the mine becomes a global example of environmental best practices." The Tennessean dryly notes that Mr. Gore wrote the letter the week after the paper posed a series of questions to him about his involvement with the zinc mines.

...

Mr. Gore has called the campaign to combat global warming a "moral imperative." But Mr. Gore faces another imperative: to square his sales pitches with the facts and his personal lifestyle to more align with what he advocates that others practice. "Are you ready to change the way you live?" asks Mr. Gore's film. It's time people ask Mr. Gore "Are you ready to change the way you live, as well as the way you lecture the rest of us?"

Hot Air and Instapundit don't think this is a big deal. I'm more with John Fund on this. Al Gore is fairly absolutist on the environment, at least in terms of his rhetoric. He's actually very latitudinarian on these issues in how he lives his own life.

Should a multimillionaire really be lecturing all of us to make do with less if he's not willing to make the colossal sacrifice of living merely like a member of the lower upper class, rather than the upper upper class?

I always giggle at Bill Maher railing about America using such a disproportionate amount of the world's resources. And who in America is using a disproportionate fraction of that disproportionate sum? Why, the rich, like Bill Maher. And yet he can't even forgo a membership at the Playboy Club.

Sweet: Gore to be grilled by Inhofe on "global warming" before a Senate committee.

The weather forecast says it'll be a balmy 43 degrees.

Anyone want to bet it'sll actually be below freezing?

posted by Ace at 02:16 PM

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