I watched a similar story on Sunday's "Hannity's America", but found this video to share. On Sunday, it was alongside a new video of Gore getting off a private jet he took from Tennessee to Cali.

You know, I really hate these rich people preaching to us about "being green" then being nothing but not green. Don't get me wrong, some are. I saw that Larry Hagman (which I don't recall being preachy, thought) has solar arrays large enough that he actually powers his neighbors. That great! He also said it cost him $750k to set up. He has the luxury of being "green". But, Al Gore is the one wanting "write the book" on global warming, but he flies around in his ungreen jets, driving around in SUVs, and preaching to everyone else to ride bikes and live in houses made of hay. His home was found to use something like 20 times more energy than the average home, and THEN he started making it "green", after it was exposed and this was only something like 6 months ago (long after his preaching started). Hypocrite.

So, a few times I've watched Living with Ed (which is where I learned about what Larry Hagman did) because I've always thought he's interesting, and figure maybe I could get a tip on using less electricity, fuel, save money, etc... Let me tell you, being "green" doesn't seem to come cheap. One week he was installing Solatubes, which are pretty cool. So, I looked them up. They cost roughly $300-$500 a tube, plus installation. Ok.. well.. let's see. Let's say it's $400, since that's the average, and you install them yourself. Let's see if I can get the math right here. Say I pay $.06/kilowatt hour and save 100 watts over an 8 hour day.

100 w x 8 hrs / 1000 = .8 kilowatt hours
.8kwh x $.06/kwh x 365 days = $17.52 cost for electricity over a year
$400/17.52 = 22.8 years.

So, in just under 23 years, a Solatube, installed for free, with no attachments or "upgrades", will pay for itself. I'm all for "going green", but the economics aren't there. My top-of-my-head math is probably a little off, but even if I were doubled, 12 years isn't much better.

It seems to me that "being green" can be a rich mans job. At least, they can individually do more by having $750k solar arrays, not flying on fuel inefficient private jets, private wind mill things, solatubes, etc... We, as non-rich people who need to keep track of our money, we can do the smaller things which add up. Like, turning off lights/computers/TVs, carpooling, etc...

I know what I'll do... if I need to travel from Tennessee to California, I'll do it in a car and make it round-trip 15 times. That would still leave a smaller footprint than the single private jet trip which Mr. Global Warming Al Gore did in his one-way trip.