You’re having a brain fade Al Gore

There has been quite a bit of coverage of Al Gore’s comments on Victoria’s climate plan, in which he condemned the ‘clean coal’ plans and made a lot of ignorant and unfounded comments.

Firstly, he said this:

“You have the ability to construct an Australian super-grid that will transmit that solar and wind and geothermal power straight to the cities . . . and in the process create lots of good new jobs.”

Now I don’t know if he’s visited Australia, but the distance from Perth to Darwin, from Darwin to Brisbane and from Brisbane to Hobart, not to mention the natural terrain issues, dictates that a “super-grid” is not viable in the slightest. He also fails to mention that the two most ‘viable’ geothermal areas are in the Barclay Tableland, near the northern part of the N.T/Qld border, hardly cosmopolitan, and in South Australia, a couple of hundred kilometres out of Adelaide.

It is well nigh impossible to efficiently and effectively, in practical, volume and financial terms, transport electricity from the Barclay Tableland to anything that could be considered remotely ‘inhabited’.

He also said this:

“Were I not to do so these same people would criticise me as a hypocrite.”

But you already are a hypocrite Al Gore. Here’s why:

• Your electric utility bill is 20 times higher than the average American’s
• Whilst campaigning for climate change alarmism, you flew around in your own private jet
• You recently made statements denouncing carbon capture techniques and geosequestration, and yet in September 2008, you urged action against coal power plants that did not have the ability to use carbon capturing
• You also made millions from a mine in Tennesee which released toxic chemicals into the environment

Before you go around making such comments, get your basic Australian geography right!