FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  CONTACT: MARC MORANO 202-224-5762
April 20, 2007                                                      marc_morano@epw.senate.gov
                                                                              MATT DEMPSEY (202) 224-9797
                                                                              matthew_dempsey@epw.senate.gov
 

 Hollywood Celebrities Challenged To Take The “Gore Pledge”

Senator Inhofe Asks Hollywood’s Global Warming Activists “Are You Ready to Change the Way You Live”

WASHINGTON, DC – In the spirit of Earth Day, James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, today issued a challenge to all Hollywood global warming activists. Senator Inhofe challenged celebrities to do what former Vice President Al Gore refuses to do – live up to their environmental rhetoric by reducing their home energy usage to the level of the average American household by Earth Day 2008. Global warming Hollywood activists such as Laurie David, John Travolta, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Madonna – to name a few – continue to alarm the public about fears of catastrophic global warming and demand that Americans change the way they live. The question remains however, will these same Hollywood alarmists reduce their own energy consumption by giving up their multiple houses and private jets to change the way they live? At the very least, will they pledge to reduce the energy usage at each of their multiple homes?

“With Earth Day this Sunday, I am issuing an Earth Day Challenge to Hollywood’s global warming activists who talk the talk to walk the walk,” Senator Inhofe said. “I am asking celebrity activists to take the ‘Gore Pledge’ to reduce their home energy usage to that of the average American.  Activists in Hollywood who assert that mankind only has 10 years left to act in order to avoid a climate catastrophe have made personal energy use a cornerstone of their pleas to the general public to save the planet. Hollywood activists should make personal energy sacrifices themselves before demanding others do so.

“It is my hope that journalists will ask these Hollywood celebrities point blank: ‘will you take the Gore Pledge to reduce your home energy usage to the level of the average American? Have you met the Earth Day challenge?’”

“GORE PLEDGE” BACKGROUND:

 

Senator Inhofe originally presented the challenge to former Vice President Al Gore at an EPW Committee hearing on March 21 – to which Gore refused, despite the former Vice President asking viewers in his movie An Inconvenient Truth “Are you ready to change the way you live?”

Following the hearing, Senator Inhofe created a new website with a daily counter to track how many days it has been since Gore has refused to take the pledge. Today, the counter stands at 30 days. See: https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Pledge

The Gore “Personal Energy Ethics Pledge” reads as follows:

As a believer:

-that human-caused global warming is a moral, ethical, and spiritual issue affecting our survival;

-that home energy use is a key component of overall energy use;

-that reducing my fossil fuel-based home energy usage will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions; and

-that leaders on moral issues should lead by example;

-I pledge to consume no more energy for use in my residence than the average American household by one year from today.” 

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