Gore's 'silly figures' sloshed on graduates

Former vice president and "global warming" entrepreneur Al Gore recently told graduates at the University of Tennessee's spring commencement they should rally behind his cry to end offshore oil production and shutter the world's coal mines.

But author Brian Sussman of the best-selling WND Books release "Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes The Global Warming Scam" contends there were just a few problems with Gore's thought process.

For example, he said, Gore's facts are wrong.

Gore claimed in his address the leak in the Gulf of Mexico was "spilling out the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez oil spill every four days."

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"The Gulf leak is oozing roughly 5,000 barrels of oil per day," countered Sussman. "The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in the Alaska poured 250,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound. At the current rate of 5,000 barrels per day, it will take the Gulf leak 50 days to total the Exxon Valdez."

Gore combined that "fictional statistic," Sussman contends, with "even more creative license, to take a stab at the coal industry."

In the speech, Gore called coal-fired electricity generating plants "the biggest uncontrollable gusher of pollution" in the world.

"Each of the average coal-fire generating plants in the United States, every day, puts three times as much global warming pollution into the atmosphere as that oil spill is putting into the Gulf of Mexico," Gore told the graduates.

And worldwide, Gore said, "the global warming pollution that we're putting up there all the time [is] at the rate of 90 trillion tons per day."

But Sussman, an award-winning television meteorologist and science reporter who has coined the anti-global warming rallying cry, "Debate me, Al Gore!" called Gore's claims "ridiculous" and "a reckless attack on an energy source that serves Americans well."

"Comparing an oil leak to greenhouse gases is like comparing apples to artichokes," said Sussman. "And Gore's misuse of statistics is staggering. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration the United States emits approximately 8 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year, with the amount emitted globally totaling 40 billion tons not 90 trillion like Gore claims."

"Gore loathes coal and has said, 'I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants,'" Sussman said. "And we're getting the same rhetoric from the Obama administration."

But by citing "wildly inaccurate statistics," says the author of "ClimatGate," Gore is "stumping for pending global-warming legislation that will defraud Americans on a scale so grandiose it makes Bernie Madoff look like a petty pickpocket."

He was referring to the pending Senate climate and energy bill – which would impose restrictions on greenhouse gases. Sussman said as that proposal angles for traction, the rhetoric will heat up to the point of repercussions for every household in America.

"If the Senate energy bill passes, the coal and oil industries are doomed," Sussman said. "The goal of this bill is an 83 percent reduction of greenhouse gases in the U.S. by 2050. Our population will have increased by 100 million by 2050 and an 83 percent cut will eliminate coal as a power source; delete the use of oil a resource Al Gore refers to as a dirty fossil fuel; not to mention wiping out our manufacturing sector," Sussman said.

As "Climategate" reports, "Electricity derived from coal powers 50 percent of all homes in the United States. Coal is a relatively inexpensive energy resource, and its supply is abundant. The United States has the world's largest known coal reserves, an estimated 489 billion tons, enough to last nearly as many years at today's level of use. Coal is natural in 27 states and the coal industry directly employs over 170,000 blue-collar workers. Yes, there are potentially harmful pollutants (not CO2) associated with coal, but since the Sixties, through superior technological advances applied in the United States, dangerous impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and particulates (soot) have been reduced by 90 percent even though the use of coal has tripled. Nonetheless, regardless of this verifiable coal clean up, U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, has repeatedly said, 'Coal is my worst nightmare.'"

As for the limits on domestic oil drilling, Sussman pins all the blame on environmentalists.

"As I describe in 'Climategate,' the U.S. is home to an oil reserve beneath federally owned land in the Rockies, and scientists believe the reserve be may triple those of Saudi Arabia, the world's number one oil exporter," he said. "However, the reserve has been placed off limits by the government. Instead, drilling has been pushed off the continent and into the deep waters offshore, where leaks and spills are more likely to occur.

"Let's have an honest debate based on the facts, not silly figures made up by a well-invested former politician."

Sussman also was on hand at a recent Gore appearance in Monterey, Calif., to challenge Gore to a debate. Gore did not respond, but some of his supporters expressed a wide range of views on his message.

"Can't you see what's going on around you?" said one. "It's been raining like crazy."

Added a second, "Climate change gets more erratic the more … I don't know the exact science behind it."

Further, said one, "They've looked at the other planets in our astrology and have shown that basically each plant has gone [in] that cycle before us."

Sussman has accused Gore of being focused on money, not the environment.

"Al Gore stands to make perhaps a billion dollars or more off of global warming," Sussman said earlier. "He doesn't believe in any of this. He believes in money."

In "Climategate," Sussman tracks Gore's massive expansion in personal wealth.

"It's widely reported that Al Gore is worth at least $100 million, although my well-connected [source] believes it may be closer to $500 million. Quite a success story for a guy, who, according to financial-disclosure records released just prior to his bid for the presidency, had a net worth near $2 million," Sussman writes.