Gore Challenge: 100% Clean Electricity by 2018

Major speech today
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2008 10:20 AM CDT
Gore Challenge: 100% Clean Electricity by 2018
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, listens to the endorsement of former Vice President Al Gore at the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit, Monday, June 16, 2008.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Al Gore is challenging the US to produce all its electricity through wind, sun, and other clean sources by 2018. Speaking to the AP ahead of a major address today, the Nobel laureate compared the goal to JFK’s 1961 pledge to make it to the moon—and said that both Barack Obama and John McCain are “way ahead” of most politicians on the climate change issue.

“I have never seen an opportunity for the country like the one that's emerging now,” the former veep said, adding that spiking fuel costs, climate change, and national security threats have created “a new political environment” for bold action on energy. Nuclear energy should remain constant, he advised, while the nation should up its solar, wind, geothermal, and clean coal use. (More Al Gore stories.)

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