By Jennifer Harper
March 8, 2008

Former Vice President Al Gore
He has a mighty big carbon footprint.

Al Gore's opulent lifestyle and his virtuous plea to save the planet from global warming don't mesh, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which announced plans yesterday for a new national advertising campaign to showcase the contrast before the American public.

It comes at an unsure time for the former vice president, whose climate efforts have netted both an Oscar and Nobel Prize in the last year. Mr. Gore's finances were questioned this week by Business Week, Bloomberg and others, citing his recent $35 million hedge fund investment and a public investment offering for his cable network Current TV — which could yield a potential $50 million profit.
Yet his name is also being bandied about in some Democratic and progressive circles for a presidential "dream team" ticket pairing him with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

The CEI ad will highlight Mr. Gore's "hypocrisy," said Sam Kazman, general counsel of the free-market public policy group.

"He is the high priest of global warming but he continues his high-flying ways," said Mr. Kazman.

"Restricting affordable energy can affect our jobs and the well-being of this nation. To restrict affordable energy in developing countries would be incredibly disturbing. That could constitute a life and death matter for them," Mr. Kazman said.

SNIP:

"If Gore truly believed the future of Earth is in peril, he would have started at home by doing his part to reduce his own 'carbon footprint.' Instead he wrote a book, made a movie and invested in companies that sell carbon offsets, all while flying on private plane and consuming 20 times more energy than the average American. That tells me that he's nothing more than a modern day snake oil salesman," Mr. Johnson said yesterday.

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