In column criticizing Gore's energy use, Krauthammer omitted Gore's purchase of green power

In a column appearing in the March 26 issue of Time magazine, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer repeated allegations that former Vice President Al Gore's "Tennessee mansion consumes 20 times the electricity used by the average American home," but in explaining Gore's attempts to reduce his effect on global warming, Krauthammer wrote only that he "spends pocket change on carbon credits." In fact, as Media Matters for America noted, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, The Tennessean of Nashville, and CNN financial correspondent Ali Velshi all reported on February 27 that Gore has in recent months attempted to reduce his "carbon footprint" by purchasing blocks of "green power" -- derived from solar power and other renewable energy sources -- at considerable additional expense. According to the weblog Think Progress, a Gore spokesman said "Gore's family ... sign[ed] up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch." Additionally, Olbermann reported that, according to Green Power Switch, "some smaller homes consume energy in the same range of usage as does the one on the Gores' property."

From Krauthammer's column in the March 26 issue of Time:

A very few of the very rich have some awareness of the emptiness -- if not the medieval corruption -- of ransoming one's sins. Sergey Brin, zillionaire founder of Google, buys carbon credits to offset the ghastly amount of carbon dioxide emitted by Google's private Boeing 767 but confesses he's not sure if it really does anything.

Which puts him one step ahead of most other eco-preeners who actually pretend that it does--the Goracle himself, for example. His Tennessee mansion consumes 20 times the electricity used by the average American home. Last August alone it consumed twice as much power as the average home consumes in a year. Gore buys absolution, however. He spends pocket change on carbon credits, which then allow him to pollute conscience-free.

—B.J.L.