In his interview with Slate magazine, former Vice President Al Gore made his case for passage of a climate change bill as a way to boost the U.S. economy and energy security. Gore claimed that without a move toward renewables, oil imports will increase and energy prices will go up, but "relying on renewable energy sources available in the United States" could create "millions of new jobs."
Gore dismissed the recent release of communications between climate researchers in England as "sound and fury signifying nothing" while calling climate change "the gravest threat that civilization has ever confronted." He called the option of EPA regulation of GHG emissions "an imperfect alternative" to legislation but noted that the threat of regulation "will require large carbon polluters to look at their hole cards, and some of them have decided that they much prefer legislation."
Gore predicted that "eventually we'll use a CO2 tax offset by a reduction in taxes elsewhere alongside a cap-and-trade plan." Gore declared: "I think that eventually we'll use both of them but we need to get started right away and the cap-and-trade is a proven and effective tool."
