Al Gore's Plan for Change

Written by Megan Treacy

Monday, 10 November 2008

Al Gore has issued a lot of challenges to us in the last few years. In recent months, he's made speeches calling for us to go carbon neutral in 10 years. In September, he encouraged civil disobedience and just last Friday at the Web 2.0 Summit, he asked us to use the web to organize a social movement to save the planet (we're already on it, Al!). But in yesterday's op-ed piece in The New York Times, his challenge was to just one person: President-elect Obama. He again called for clean electricity by 2018, but this time he presented a five-part plan, the cornerstone of which is a $400 billion federal investment in a smart grid. He notes that the way out of the climate crisis also carries a solution to the the economic crisis, citing how government funding of new infrastructure projects brought us out of the Great Depression. Here are the five steps in Gore's plan: Large-scale investments in incentives for solar thermal plants in the Southwest, wind farms stretching from Texas to the Dakotas and advanced geothermal plants in known hot spots. $400 billion over 10 years for a unified national smart grid that would transport renewable energy from the rural areas where it's generated to the cities where it's needed. It should include smart features that would allow consumers to conserve electricity and reduce bills. Help the automobile industry (the large automakers and new start-ups) to convert to plug-in hybrids that utilize the smart grid. A nationwide initiative to retrofit buildings with better insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting. He asks that the initiative be coupled with the proposal in Congress to help Americans with mortgages that are more expensive than the value of their homes. Put a price on carbon and lead world efforts to come up with a more effective replacement to the Kyoto treaty. via NY Times