Gore touts (California) Prop. 87 in Berkeley

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4537574

BERKELEY -- Global warming is the pre-eminent crisis of our age and Californians can start addressing it as easily as casting a vote for Proposition 87, Al Gore said Monday.

(snip)

Environmental devastation, war, famine and disease "are not political problems, they're moral imperatives and they're up to us to confront," Gore said. "It starts right here in the state of California when you pass Prop. 87."

High-tech research and development into alternative energy sources would undermine oil cartels which manipulate their prices not only to maximize profits but also "to manage our political will," Gore said. The Nov. 7 vote will be "an election in which California can startle the world" by refusing to be "played for suckers again by the oil cartel."

Proposition 87 would tax oil companies for oil they take from California, raising about $4 billion for use in developing alternative energy sources with a goal of reducing the state's dependence on gas and diesel by 25 percent within 10 years.

(more... )

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/24/BAG4VLURQS1.DTL&hw=al+gore&sn=001&sc=1000


CAMPAIGN 2006
Proposition 87
Gore stumps in Berkeley for oil production tax
Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Former Vice President Al Gore, calling global warming a worldwide crisis that requires immediate attention, urged Californians on Monday to approve Proposition 87, the ballot initiative to tax oil production to fund alternative fuel development.

In an energetic speech in Berkeley before hundreds of people at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, Gore likened global warming to other major crises of the day, including the genocide in Darfur, poverty in the developing world, and the degradation of forests and oceans.

Global warming offers an opportunity "to have a shared moral purpose compelling enough to rise above our limitations," Gore said in the conclusion of his nearly half-hour speech during a campaign rally he led. "To take destiny in our own hands and by rising to meet this climate crisis, we can identify these other crises as moral issues. ... And I'll tell you where it starts. It starts right here in the state of California when you pass Proposition 87."

...snip

Prop. 87, which seeks to raise as much as $4 billion by taxing California's oil production, has been one of the most contentious issues on the ballot in the upcoming general election. Both sides have saturated the airwaves with television ads since the beginning of August.


...more at link

I recall the 1998 deal when then Vice-President Gore brokered a deal with long-time political patron of the Gore Family, Occidental Petroleum. In that deal, Occidental bought the Elk Hills Strategic Oil Reserve for pennies to the dollar of estimated commercial value, costing the US Government billions of dollars of revenue and decreasing US strategic petroleum reserves by more than half. Not to mention that most of the Gore family's wealth comes from coal, one of the most egregious sources of pollution on the planet.

I would like to believe that, over the last few years, Mr. Gore has had a genuine change of heart over his crappy environmentalist record. But while his personal fortune remains tied up in coal and petroleum extraction and use, I say he is just blowing sulfur laden fumes.

Gore is now apolitical. He's outside of the process and he is more free to act on spirit than in the corrupt realpolitik that controls our government. As ex-president he will be much more honest and commited, carter-esque.

But I have a problem with this initiative. I don't like that there is no oversight or accountability for the proposed agency that will disburse these funds.

The other thing I go back to is well intentioned taxes. My friends from Maine were all employed in boat building. So, we taxed the hell out of new luxury yacht sales. So what happened? The ones who could afford the yachts in the first place bought used or bought overseas. All the workers my friends knew were out of work, the industry was destroyed, and instead of good, skilled labor jobs, most of them are working for much less.

I just don't trust the consequences of this one.

A quick overview of Gore's family's "wealth"... Gore's family was working class until his parents generation: his mom worked as a waitress to put herself through law school and his dad was teacher before he ran for his first office in the 1930s. While Gore Sr. was in Congress and the Senate, they were middle class at best: when they were in Washington, they lived in a residential hotel owned by a cousin. (When their cousin needed the rooms, they had to vacate. In the hotel, Gore and his sister shared a room.) When Congress was out of session, the family lived on their farm in Tennessee.

The family did not move out of the middle class until after Gore Sr retired from politics in the early 1970s - - after Gore was an adult. Gore Sr. did work for Occidental and did own a bunch of Occidental stock, but he also raised Angus cattle and a little tobacco. When his Dad died, the Occidental stock was part of a trust left to his Mom. Gore convinced his Mom to sell the stock over six years ago.

Gore lived off his salary as a public servant until he left office. He didn't own any stock of any kind when he was a public official.

It's only since he left office that Gore has (apparently) become rich. He made his own money through a sustainable investment company that he founded and through his interactive cable TV company. Gore has donated all of his royalties from his latest book and film to global warming education. His companies are certified carbon neutral, and the Gores also live a carbon neutral lifestyle. Their home has solar power and they drive a hybrid car. They buy carbon offsets for all the pollution they can't avoid - - like the extensive air travel Gore does in his fight against global warming.

I know of the (in)famous comment by Armand Hammer, founder of Occidental Petroleum, that he had the elder Senator Gore "in his back pocket," the subsequent sale of Elk Hills to Hammer's company, and a fair bit of controversy over Al Gore's environmental policy as a Congressman, Senator and Vice-President during the 2000 election. Many environmental groups brought up his poor record on pollution issues, particularly his having lobbied Congress against a plan to tighten emissions standards for coal burning power plants, and cited the Gore family's financial interests as a reason.

Even so, I thank you for the background information. I will use it and try not to let my growing cynicism get the better of me. :hi:

something you don't really know all that much about. While I believe the info posted by AlGore-08 isfactually correct, I'm not certain, and I would encourage you to research and verify that before taking it as gospel as well.

Yes I'm being cranky with you, perhaps too much, but this is the kind of thing that tweaks me.

Olafr

Kicked and recommended



:kick: