As the sweat-soaked crowd entered the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, to hear Al Gore’s energy challenge they were greeted by a blast of air conditioning. Relief! Sweet ironic relief! DC is obscenely hot today, yet, thousands of people were lined up along the street to hear Gore issue what was promised, a truly grand challenge. They were not disappointed.

Al Gore issued the challenge of our lifetime…

“Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean  carbon-free sources withing 10 years”

What does he mean? solar, wind and geothermal power.

How does he envision paying for it? Carbon Taxes (along with a drop in payroll tax.) There was very little detail other than that and we can predict the rhetoric on this particular part of the challenge. It will be expensive, no question about it, but I have yet to hear a way that we will be able to deal with global warming and our dependence on foreign oil without spending some serious cash on R&D.

If you go to the WeCanSolveIt.org website, Gore has a FAQ that includes information on paying for it…

This will be a one-off investment to replace an electricity grid that mainly relies on expensive and dirty old fossil fuels with one that relies more on free and clean fuels.
Over the typical 30-year lifetime of a clean power plant, we will save so much in fuel costs that it will make up for the capital investment.
With energy efficiency, we’ll be able to reduce the number of new power plants we have to build and also avoid the high costs of building more dirty coal power plants planned today.
And let’s compare it to other costs. What gives us any confidence that other fuels will be cheaper? Or that other capital costs won’t keep rising like they have with conventional power plants recently? The prices of oil and gas have proven to be extremely volatile. Even the price of our own US coal has spiked with global demand.

How will we pay for the new energy economy?

The vast majority of funding for new power plants will come from private capital.
With Americans coming together to embrace policies for a smarter energy future, we will change what investors see as the safest or best investments. And when rules are in place to reward reducing pollution, private capital will flow towards that safe haven.
The government will likely continue to play a role in early stage R&D, infrastructure, public transportation, and jump-starting energy efficiency programs.

Gore also called for a overhaul of our energy grid and the creation of a Unified National Grid. No question. This needs to happen.

As for political will, Gore called politics the biggest barrier to change and referred to the call for more drilling as a means to lowering gas prices “perverse,” because it will take too long and increased production will never keep up with demand, thus prices are unlikely to go down.

“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.”

The call to citizens was also clear.

“I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge–for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It’s time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric.”

My challenge to you…if your candidate for office accepts Gore’s challenge, update the SHARP Network with it. Everyone should know where their candidates stand on this challenge, so if you find out that your congressman or candidate has either accepted Gore’s challenge or rejected it, let us know so we can spread the word.