CARTHAGE, Tenn. – Tennessean.com– [1] Al Gore has profited from zinc mining that has released millions of pounds of potentially toxic substances near his farmstead, but there is no evidence the mine has caused serious damage to the environment in the area or threatened the health of his neighbors.
Two massive white mountains of leftover rock waste are evidence of three decades of mining that earned Gore more than $500,000 in royalty payments for the mineral rights to his property.
…
Last week, Gore sent a letter asking the company to work with Earthworks, a national environmental group, to make sure the operation doesn’t damage the environment.
“We would like for you to engage with us in a process to ensure that the mine becomes a global example of environmental best practices,” Gore wrote.
Victor Wyprysky, the company’s president and chief executive officer, did not respond to requests for comment on the letter.
The letter was sent the week after The Tennessean’s Washington bureau posed questions to the former vice president about his involvement with the mine.
So, we may logically assume that had such questions NOT been asked, Gore would have gone on his merry way.
But now that the mine is reopening and Gore’s status as an environmentalist has grown, some of Gore’s neighbors see a conflict between the mining and his moral call for environmental activism.
“Mining is not exactly synonymous with being green, is it?” said John Mullins, who lives in nearby Cookeville. A conservative, Mullins welcomes the resumption of mining for the benefits it will bring the community. But he says Gore’s view that global warming is a certainty is arrogant and that by being connected to mining, Gore is not “walking the walk.”
Quite so.
Even Gore noted in his letter that, according to Scorecard, “pollution releases from the mine in 2002 placed it among the ‘dirtiest/worst facilities’ in the U.S.”
The question here isn’t the legality of the mining operation. The question here, is that Al Gore is being disingenuous, once again about his ‘environmentalism’. So bad is this double standard, that even the all-too-left-leaning Useless Toady [2] has started to take note.
Bill Hobbs [3], always a good source for politics down that way, notes this, as well, saying in part:
I’m sure Gore will purchase “toxins offsets.” Or maybe he’ll ask the mining company to buy “pollution credits” through an investment company Gore just happens to be connected with. Because paying others to be “green” so you can continue trashing the environment is how today’s celebrity environmentalists help save the planet.
(edit: Hobbs link repaired)