Gore asks bloggers for help promoting energy challenge

By Katharine Q. Seelye
Published: July 20, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas: Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, was asked a question about energy here at a bloggers conference. She glanced at her BlackBerry, noting that she had an e-mail message from a friend on that very subject.
With that, the voice of former Vice President Al Gore boomed over the public address system, leaving a sea of quizzical looks and then gasps, cheers and a standing ovation as he strode onto the stage.
It produced the first electric moment at the conference, the Netroots Nation, an ever-widening group of progressive bloggers whose major interests - the war in Iraq, the environment and technology - mesh well with Gore's current pursuits. Indeed, many in the crowd who are supporting Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, were overheard saying they wished Gore was running for president.
As waves of cheers washed over the convention center, Gore said to Pelosi, "We ought to take that act on the road."
"We are on the road," she replied.

"Well, I feel right at home here, I'll tell you," he said.
Gore told a questioner that he would not accept a role in the next administration. The best use of his talent and experience, he said, is "to focus on trying to enlarge the political space" within which politicians can address the climate crisis.
"I have seen firsthand how important it is to have a base of support out in the country for the truly bold changes that have to be made now," he said, noting that was why he intended to devote his life to bringing about "a sea change in public opinion."
He repeated the challenge he issued to the country to produce 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy and clean, carbon-free sources within 10 years. And he called on the bloggers to help achieve that goal, saying they were on the leading edge of reclaiming democracy for the grass roots.
As the morning began, Pelosi appeared on the stage with Gina Cooper, the moderator and organizer of the conference. The bloggers had submitted questions in advance and voted on them; the first was why Democratic leaders in the House were reluctant to take up impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Pelosi said the House was considering contempt resolutions against Karl Rove, the president's former top adviser.
Asked by Cooper whether, if Rove were found in contempt of Congress, he would be put "in that little jail cell that's in the basement of the House," the audience cheered. Pelosi replied that Representative John Conyers Jr., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had told her, "Leave it up to me."
She was next asked about the wiretapping bill, detested by many progressives. She said the House version was better than the Senate's and blamed Senate Democrats for approving a version that "enabled the Republicans to send that bill to the House."
Cooper, who periodically interceded with pointed comments that were much appreciated by the audience, said later, "It sounds like your colleagues need to get with the program with the American people."
Asked whether Congress should bail out General Motors, Pelosi said: "I don't think that's going to happen," though she wanted to help pensioners and workers.
When Gore addressed the group, he noted first that the polar ice cap, which is about the size of the continental United States and has been in existence for three million years, had a 75-to-80 percent chance of melting in five years.
He also mentioned his energy challenge, which brought another standing ovation. He said he was trying to recruit "an army" of 10 million citizens to build political consensus across party lines for the energy challenge and directed the audience to wecansolveit.org, the Web site of his group, the Alliance for Climate Protection.
"I need your help," Gore said, a plea that bloggers heard repeatedly throughout their conference, which began Thursday and ended Sunday, as speaker after speaker for various causes took note of their increasing influence within society.
Gore promised them that the alliance would not turn partisan or take up some other agenda and that he was in it "for the long haul."
Pelosi was asked whether Congress would accept Gore's energy challenge. "It is absolutely possible to do so," she said.
She added that without Gore, "there would be no Netroots Nation; we would simply not have the technology."
As a reminder of the flap caused years ago - when he got tagged with having said he had "invented" the Internet, although he had not used that word and had, in fact, helped legislatively to create it - he smiled at Pelosi's comments and said, "I think I'll refrain from saying it."