NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH
AND SOMETHING SHORT OF THE TRUTH

Last night we did a story about Al Gore's energy usage at his home in Nashville. The story was based on information diseminated by a right-wing policy group which claimed Gore used about 20 times more energy than the average home owner to power his residence. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research said it got its numbers from the local utility, Nashville Electric Service.

In a response to our request, NES issued the following statement on Gore's electric bill.

"Nashville Electric Service provided to the Tennessean - in the form of a public records request - electric bill histories on Al Gore and two other customers. By state law, NES must provide this information. We also provided the information that Mr. Gore purchases a large amount of Green Power Switch (renewable energy) each month. NES did not supply the usage calculations."

So to review, The Tennessee Center for Policy Research got a bottom line DOLLAR figure for Gore's energy usage, calculated the kilowatt hour usage based on the company's rates but then failed to take into account that some, much, or all of that usage could have been the renewable energy that NES mentions in its statement. Not only did the right-wing policy group not take into account the purchase of renewable energy when calculating Gore's usage, it also failed to MENTION IT in its editorial.

So, the group was not being completey honest in criticizing Gore for promoting conservation while using more than his share of energy. Not even close to completely honest.

Another case of the right-wing slime machine in action?