U.S. Green Building Council: Gore home one of nation's most environmentally friendly

The Al Gore personal energy consumption furor manufactured by conservatives was beyond absurd to begin with, but Al and his family have managed to make it look even more ridiculous with recent home improvements:

The former vice president has installed solar panels, a rainwater-collection system and geothermal heating. He also replaced all incandescent lights with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs - even on his Christmas tree.

"Short of tearing it down and starting anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher," said Kim Shinn of the U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.

Gore's improvements cut the home's summer electrical consumption by 11 percent compared with a year ago, according to utility records reviewed by The Associated Press. Most Nashville homes used 20 percent to 30 percent more electricity during the same period because of a record heat wave.

Shinn said Gore's renovations are impressive because his home, which is more than 80 years old, had to meet the same rigorous standards as new construction.

Gore's home is in fact one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly in the nation, considering how few homes are certified gold or platinum:

The Green Building Council's certification program has four levels, with platinum being the highest followed by gold. Gore's home was one of 14 to earn gold status and the only Tennessee home to earn any certification.

Our thanks to the Associated Press for helping to set the record straight. Cleaning up the toxic garbage dumped into the political dialogue by the Republican Noise Machine is a tough job, but the mess shouldn't be this big. The attack on Gore, for instance, never should have received the attention it did. It was just another concoction of distortions from desperate conservatives.

Journalists who work for traditional media outlets need to recognize nonsense from the right wing echo chamber when they see it, and contain that pollution by not giving it a broader audience.