Gore Urges Carbon-Free Energy by 2018

OAKLAND, Calif. — Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday called on the U.S. to make an Apollo-like leap to produce all of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources within a decade.

The country's most famous climate change messenger extolled the role of renewable energy sources as a way by which the U.S. can not only avoid the most devastating effects of a warming planet, but also bolster America's national security and flailing economy.

"When we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges -- the economic, environmental and national security crises," Gore said in a speech Thursday.

Gore called the reduction of payroll taxes -- which would be offset by carbon dioxide taxes -- the single most important possible policy change. "We should tax what we burn, not what we earn," Gore said.

The Nobel Prize winner bemoaned the sorry state of an economy saddled with high energy prices, outsourced jobs and teetering housing market. "Strange" weather includes record floods, longer droughts and mega-fires. He questioned the logic of overrelying on finite resources.

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet," Gore said. "Every bit of that's got to change."

He claimed the solutions can be found in renewables, where "enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year." Wind, Gore said, holds the potential to satisfy U.S. energy demand. A major investment also must be made into the energy grid, efficiency and conservation, and plug-in electric cars.

Gore called the effort reminiscent of the U.S. putting a man on the moon. "Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind," he said.

The target is a laudable goal that, as a practical matter, now faces a lack of transmission infrastructure and capital investment, said Steven Kelly, policy director of the Independent Energy Producers Association in Sacramento, Calif.

"Achieving a 50 percent (renewable) penetration rate in California in 10 years is incredibly optimistic," Kelly said.

Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Association, called Gore's 10-year renewable energy goal "doable."

"There's no question that it's technically achievable, in my view," Rader said. "But for people who spend time with the ugly details of getting this stuff done, it's a tall order."