CHICAGO, Illinois, December 10, 2008 (ENS) – President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he is ready to tackle the climate crisis immediately upon taking office, following a meeting Tuesday with former Vice President Al Gore and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

“All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over, the time for denial is over,” Obama said.

The three men met at the Transition’s Chicago headquarters to discuss energy and climate policy – and how addressing those issues can drive the nation’s economic recovery.

“This is a matter of urgency and national security,” Obama said. “It is not only a problem, it is also an opportunity.”

From left, Vice president-elect Joseph Biden,
President-elect Barack Obama, former Vice
President Al Gore at Transition headquarters.
December 9, 2008 (Photo courtesy Obama
Transition Team)

“We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country in all 50 states to repower America,” said Obama, “to redesign how we use energy and think about how we are increasing efficiency to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come – even as we save the planet.”

Obama’s “repower America” comment Tuesday is an echo of Gore’s plan, made public in July, to Repower America with 100 percent clean electricity within 10 years.

The plan to Repower America outlines immediate investments in three areas: energy efficiency, renewable generation and transmission.
# Energy Efficiency: A national upgrade to eliminate waste, save money, and improve comfort. Make every bit of energy we produce work harder for us.

# Renewable Generation: Accelerate the ramp-up of clean, renewable electricity sources through policies that support increased private and public investment in technologies that work, like wind, solar, and geothermal.

# Unified National Smart Grid: Modernize transmission infrastructure so that clean electricity generated anywhere in America can power homes and businesses across the nation. National electricity ‘interstates’ that move power quickly and cheaply to where it needs to be; local smart grids that buy and sell power from households and support clean plug-in cars.

The president-elect and the former vice president appear to be in accord on the urgent need to address global warming after eight years of denial, delay and neglect during the Bush administration. Obama is taking advice from Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his work to publicize the dangers of global warming through his Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

In November, the We Can Solve It campaign mounted by Gore’s nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection launched an advertising and grassroots effort to support the president-elect as he enacts policies to revitalize the American economy and help solve the climate crisis.

Obama is not waiting until he takes office to go green. His will be the first eco-friendly inaugural celebration in American history.

Event Emissary, a DC-based event planning company, announced today that it will host the Green Ball to kick off the Obama Inaugural on January 17, 2009 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. www.greeninauguralball.com

Co-founder Jenna Mack explains, ” With millions of visitors headed to Washington for President-elect Obama’s swearing in ceremony and accompanying celebrations, the impact on our environment will be substantial. Our goal is to create an unforgettable evening while treading lightly on the Earth.”

Every facet of The Green Ball is designed to reduce the impact on the environment. Catering will be 100 percent organic and include both vegetarian and vegan options. The bars will feature local and organic beverages. Food waste and floral arrangements will be composted and bottles will be recycled.

Decorative lighting will focus on the use of LED Color Blasts that utilize a fraction of the power compared to more traditional lighting sources. Entertainment audio-visual production will be tailored to minimize environmental impact, using only the most efficient lighting and equipment.

“That which cannot be reduced will be offset,” says Mack. “Energy usage will be measured closely and offset through the purchase of wind power credits. Transportation for deliveries to the event, as well as vendor and staff transportation will be offset through the purchase of carbon credits.”

Event Emissary Co-founder Stephanie Campbell said, “While one green event is a step in the right direction, our goal is to bring attention to this issue while the Presidential Inaugural Committee and many other groups are still early in their planning. We hope to set an example to other organizations and encourage them to green their events, as well.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2008 (ENS) – In the countdown to election day, the national, non-partisan youth campaign Power Vote has been active across the country to make sure young people turn out in record numbers to vote for clean energy, climate protection and green job creation.

For the last few days, Power Voters have been organizing green concerts, festivals, and rallies, dorm storms, bike blitzes, phone banking, as well as traditional door knocking and canvassing to ensure that the youth vote is huge this year.

In St. Louis, Missouri, students held a “Metrolink Prom” on Saturday to help raise awareness about a local public transportation proposition.

On Friday in Virginia, students held a statewide “Hallow-Green” Day of Action to show youth voter support for clean energy. Hundreds of campuses also participated in Trick or Vote activities in “climate costumes.”

“Young people understand that their future is at stake in this election,” said Jessy Tolkan, director of Energy Action Coalition’s Power Vote campaign. “Our generation is not only committed to voting on November 4 but is also actively engaged in the democratic process.”

The non-partisan effort to get out the vote is spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition and the “We” Campaign, a project of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Working in more than 300 campuses and communities Power Voters have gotten at least 310,288 young people to commit to voting for clean energy and green jobs and have had a presence at every presidential and vice presidential debate, as well as at hundreds of campaign and candidate events around the country.

Jessy Tolkan, director of the Power Vote
campaign, with former Vice President
Al Gore at the webcast October 29,
2008 (Photo courtesy Power Vote)

On October 29, Power Vote organized a webcast with former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, creator of the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” about the dangers of global warming.

More than 15,000 viewers on 154 campuses nationwide tuned in to hear Gore promote his “Repower America” plan, which sets the goal of 100 percent renewable and truly clean electricity within 10 years.

“To Repower America with 100 percent carbon-free electricity within 10 years,” Gore said on the webcast, “we’re going to need the enthusiasm and dedication of millions of motivated students and young adults. I applaud the Energy Action Coalition for their valuable work encouraging students to vote on Election Day.”

“We have had enough of dirty energy politics and are doing everything we can to make sure this election is the beginning of a clean energy future for America,” Tolkan said.

Today, there were youth vote rallies in Ohio and Virginia.

Massive synchronized dorm storms are planned throughout the night in nearly every state.

On election day students in New Hampshire and Florida will be marching to the polls together.

In other states, students are planning Critical Mass bike rides to the polls.

And in North Carolina, free biodiesel bus rides are being arranged to get voters to the polls. In anticipation of long lines, students in many states are doing street theater performances and are throwing Polling Parties to keep people entertained as they wait to vote.

Throughout the weekend, Power Voters talked to hundreds of thousands of their classmates and peers in-person, on the phone, and through Facebook to make sure they had all the information they needed to vote.

And Tuesday night, as the results roll in, Power Vote green election watching parties will be happening across the country.

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Dee Dee Myers is the first woman and one of the youngest people ever to serve as White House Press Secretary. During the first years of the Clinton Administration, Myers explained the actions of the new president to a vigilant press corps and to the nation. She earned the respect of both with her sharp political instincts, sense of humor and ability to explain complex subjects in straightforward language.

Myers is currently a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair magazine, a frequent political commentator on NBC and MSNBC, and author of Why Women should Rule the World (Harper Collins, 2008) . Myers was an original consultant to the NBC series, The West Wing, and contributed story lines and technical advice throughout its prizewinning long run.

1. What’s your favorite political movie?

PRIMARY COLORS.

2. What role do you feel art plays in politics?

Among other things, art can be a lens that helps us to see our circumstances – or ourselves – a little more clearly. In this election cycle, there is no arguably no better example of that the Saturday Night Live. During the primaries and again during the general election, SNL’s satire has distilled so many of the big questions – where are the cultural fault lines in our country? what do we mean by qualified? – into tight, digestible and hilarious bits. It has made us laugh – and made us think.

3. Who was the first political candidate you were excited to vote for and why?

The first campaign that really grabbed my imagination was also the first one I worked on: Walter Mondale’s 1984 bid for president. Now, most people wouldn’t put former Vice President Mondale at the top the “inspiring” list. But for me, his candidacy coincided with the realization that I could have a voice in the process, as a voter and a staffer. And when he named Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate – the first American woman to run for national office – the world changed for me. I saw a whole different future for myself and for women in politics.

4. What factors are important to you in choosing a president?

If there were a simple answer to that question, we’d just apply a formula – like an algorithm – to our quadrennial dilemma, and poof, we’d pick the best president. Instead, we’re left with our imperfect formulations. Personally, I look for the following qualities: Experience. What kind of life of life has the candidate led, and what has he accomplished? Judgment. Does he make the right calls on the hard questions? Can he or she handle pressure, adversity, crisis, set backs? World view. Is the person curious? Does he care about the world – and understand it? Compaission. Does he understand and care about the lives of ordinary Americans – and do the people he hopes to lead connect with him? Authenticity. What are the candidate’s values? Has he lived them?

5. What issues would you like to see politicians focus more on?

Education, education, education.

6. Which issues would you like to see politicians focus less on?

Lipstick on pigs, guilt by association, and distortions of opponent’s records and proposals.

7. Which candidate’s initiatives do you feel better address environmental concerns?

Senator Obama’s, by a huge margin.

8. This is your soapbox – shout it out! What do you need to get off your chest?

We must not allow any candidate distort the real issues in this, or any, election. We can’t let them use hate and fear to divide us. We can’t let them take us back. We’re better than that. America is better than that. So let’s summon the better angels or our nature, as President Lincoln called us to do. Let’s imagine a better tomorrow, vote our hopes, and make it happen.

WASHINGTON, DC, July 18, 2008 (ENS) – “Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years,” said former Vice President and Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore Thursday.

Speaking to an audience at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington, Gore said, “This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”

Gore says America is at a turning point and immediate action is required to utilize the abundant supplies of wind, solar and geothermal energy that exist right now in the United States.

“There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger,” Gore said.

“In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside,” he said.

“This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more – if more should be required – the future of human civilization is at stake.”

Al Gore emphasizes the urgency of
immediate action to reverse climate
change. July 17, 2008 (Photo by
Matthew Bradley)

The speech was given to draw public attention to Gore’s latest project, the We Can Solve It Campaign, a project of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Gore, with the ultimate aim of halting global warming.

Gore said transformation must happen within 10 years because the climate crisis is worsening more quickly than predicted.

“Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that within five years the entire ice cap will completely disappear during the summer months. This will further increase the melting pressure on Greenland,” Gore told the audience at Constitution Hall.

“According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland’s largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.”

Gore cited two studies from military intelligence experts warning about “the dangerous national security implications of the climate crisis, including the possibility of hundreds of millions of climate refugees destabilizing nations around the world.”

“Just two days ago, 27 senior statesmen and retired military leaders warned of the national security threat from an “energy tsunami” that would be triggered by a loss of our access to foreign oil. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and now the war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.”

Gore says the answer is to stop relying on carbon-based fuels.

“In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis,” he told the audience, “I have held a series of ’solutions summits’ with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices.”

“They are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf,” he said.

Gore says American can use fuels that are not expensive, do not cause pollution and are abundantly available within the United States.

“We have such fuels,” he said. “Scientists have confirmed that 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. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.”

“And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of U.S. electricity demand,” said Gore.

“Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.”

One by one, Gore set up the possible criticisms his plan might face and knocked them down.

“To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to accomplish these results with renewable energy: I ask them to come with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution. I’ve seen what they are doing and I have no doubt that we can meet this challenge,” he said.

“To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.”

Gore says his plan will not only free the country from the shakles of foreign oil but also build back the faltering economy.

“When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home,” he said.

“Of course there are those who will tell us this can’t be done,” said Gore. “Some of the voices we hear are the defenders of the status quo – the ones with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise.”

“To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world’s scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don’t act in 10 years,” said Gore.

“The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down,” he said.

“To those who say the challenge is not politically viable: I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people’s appetite for change,” Gore said.

“I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil.”

“And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.”

Gore said the 10 year target he proposes is the right amount of time to allow for focused action without losing sight of the goal.

“Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that fell well beyond the next election: the Marshall Plan, Social Security, the interstate highway system. But a political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that it’s meaningless,” Gore said. “Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.”

Gore served as vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He served first in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later in the U.S. Senate (1985–93) representing Tennessee before becoming vice president.

In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for “efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

He is the author of the 2006 text, “An Inconvenient Truth,” a slide show on global warming and starred in the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” released in conjunction with the book. He helped to organize the July 7, 2007 set of Live Earth benefit concerts to combat global warming.

Gore is currently the cofounder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, cofounder and chairman of the Emmy award winning American television channel Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a Senior Advisor to Google. He is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm’s climate change solutions group.

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Simran Sethi moderates Q&A session with Former Vice President Al Gore in Real Time

MSN is honored to host former Vice President Gore who will answer climate crisis questions in real time from the public. Covering questions on how to make your home more green or how to make small, yet effective, changes to your daily routine, Gore will offer simple tips and tricks that can help impact climate change. This online interaction is associated with Live Earth, concerts for a climate in crisis at MSN [LiveEarth.msn.com] on 7/7/07.

This event starts on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 1:30 PM EST.

The event will be moderated by Simran Sethi, an environmental journalist from Sundance Channel’s “The Green”.

To submit questions for the interview, simply send an email to goreonmsn@hotmail.com.