Gore calls for 100 percent renewable electricity by 2018

In a speech at Constitution Hall in Washington, former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore called for the United States to switch all national electricity production to renewable resources, including wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass, by 2018. In an interview with the Associated Press after the speech, Gore added that “Even coal has a role to play if the carbon dioxide is captured and safely buried … but clean coal does not exist right now.”

Praising presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain and Libertarian candidate Rep. Bob Barr, Gore called for the country to move beyond partisanship. Gore’s proposal called for a carbon tax on oil and coal, offset by a reduction in the payroll tax. His proposal called for an increase in clean goal, geothermal, wind and solar-based electricity generation.

His group, the Alliance for Climate Protection, said that the switch would cost up to $3 trillion over a 30-year period, but added that the construction of coal-fired plants to meet current demand trends would be the same.

Reaction to the Gore speech from Barack Obama, John McCain and others is here.

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