Courtesy of Salon.com:
GORE: Well, first of all, Senator, thank you so much for your question. ... You know, one of the other recommendations that I would have is that you also set standards for green energy produced by utilities. And one reason I say that in response to what you're saying here is that that's what we purchase. And we pay more for it because it's still relatively uncommon.
INHOFE: Senator Gore...
GORE: If I could just...
INHOFE: Well, you can't.
BOXER: If you could allow -- you've asked the senator an important question. He's answering it. Give him the...
INHOFE: All right, could we stop the clock during this time then?
BOXER: No, I'm not going to stop the clock. He has a minute to answer. How can you ask a question and not give the man a minute to answer? Please.
GORE: We purchase wind energy and other green energy that does not produce carbon dioxide, and that does cost a little more now, and that is one of the reasons why it costs a little more. We're also in the process of renovating an old home...
INHOFE: OK. Senator Gore...
(CROSSTALK)
GORE: Could I make one other point? Because a lot of communities actually have laws preventing the installation of solar photable tags...
INHOFE: So I assume the answer is no. Let's go to the next question.
GORE: And if I could continue. I don't believe that there should be a federal provision that overrides any local restrictions on...
INHOFE: All right. Senator Gore, I'm very sorry. I don't want to be rude, but from now I'm going to ask you to respond for the record in writing, since you're not going to respond -- if you change your mind.
GORE: If I choose to respond to you verbally here, I hope that will be OK, too.
INHOFE: If it's a very brief response. All right. I'm sure you read the New York Times article that quoted the scientists. I mentioned this in my opening statement about their criticizing you for some of your being too alarmist and hurting your own cause. Now I'll ask you to respond in writing for that one, because that would be a very long response, I'm afraid.
It seems that everybody on global warming in the media...
(CROSSTALK)
BOXER: Senator Inhofe, we'll freeze...
INHOFE: I'm asking...
BOXER: We'll freeze the time for a minute. I'm just trying to make...
INHOFE: Oh, yes. Take your time. We're freezing the time.
BOXER: We're freezing the time just for a minute. I want to talk to you a minute, please. Would you agree to let the vice president answer your questions? And then if you want an extra few minutes at the end, I'm happy to give it to you. But we're not going to get anywhere.
INHOFE: Why don't we do this? Why don't we do this? At the end you can have as much time as you want to answer all of the questions.
BOXER: No, that isn't the rule. You're not making the rules. You used to when you did this. You don't do this anymore.
(LAUGHTER)
Elections have consequences, so I make the rules. But here's the thing. I want you to get your questions answered. I promise you to give you an additional three minutes of time, but if you will allow the chair -- if I believe the vice president is wandering into another area, I will just say that quietly, and he will, I know, move on. He knows the rules here. ...
INHOFE: All right. Now, it seems that everything is blamed on global warming. You talked about the fires in Oklahoma. Last summer we had a heat wave, and everyone said, "Oh, that's proof. It's global warming." And then we had a mild December. "Oh, that's proof that it's global warming that's taking place." Now I wonder how come you guys never seem to notice it when it gets cold? If you put up chart number two, there.
This is for your benefit, Senator Clinton. This is Buffalo, New York.
I have in my hand here the document from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They set records all over America in January: 183 cold records -- 183 of them -- this is a new record -- all over America. That was all in one month. And I would just have to say that in our state in Oklahoma we had three days that were the coldest days in history. Where is global warming when you really need it? ...
[W]e've got thousands of meteorologists, geologists, physicists, astrophysicists, climatologists, scientists who disagree with you. Are they all wrong, and you're right?
...
GORE: The National Academy of Sciences here in this country and in the 16 largest or most developed countries in the world -- the ones that have respected large national academies of science -- all of them unanimously have expressed agreement with the consensus that I stated to you. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that has had its fourth unanimous report in 15 years agrees with the consensus that I stated to you.
INHOFE: Sir, my time is almost expired completely. Are you aware of that?
GORE: If I could complete my answer...
INHOFE: Well, if you do, my time is expired. Are you aware of that? Do you care?
GORE: Well, I can't help that because you went on for a long time, but I would like to...
INHOFE: No, I had 15 minutes. You, sir, had 30 minutes. I had 15. You've got to let me have my 15 minutes, Senator Gore.
GORE: If I could just...
INHOFE: I could respond to what you said...
GORE: ... complete my response...
INHOFE: Well, you've already done it. The National Academy of Sciences...
(CROSSTALK)
BOXER: Senator, Senator, I will stop the clock and allow Senator Gore to complete, please. And then we'll go back to you.
INHOFE: Thank you.
BOXER: OK. Go ahead.
GORE: I'll just give you one other example. The University of California did a very well respected, well picked over, peer-reviewed study. The team was led by Professor Naomi Oreskes. They reviewed every single peer-reviewed scientific journal article for the previous 10 years on this topic. They took a very large sample of almost 10 percent of them -- 928. About 25 percent of the articles didn't deal with the central point of the consensus -- some arcane matter -- but of those that dealt with the main consensus, the number that disagreed with the consensus was zero. This is a very well established and very strong scientific consensus, and it's not me saying it. It's what the scientific community is saying.
INHOFE: OK. My response to that is that first of all, every scientist that I named up here is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. They disagree with you. They disagree with that statement. But the National Academy of Sciences back in 1975 had a very interesting observation. They said, however, asserting "a finite possibility that a serious worldwide cooling could befall the earth within the next 100 years" -- exactly what they're saying now, except at that time it was not.
GORE: Could I comment on that?
INHOFE: No. With all respect, Senator Gore, we can't do that.
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