VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Dear -- Dear Nancy, Thursday I issued a challenge to reset the way America makes our energy policy. We have to have a new commitment...

(Standing ovation)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: That worked well. We ought to take this on the road.

(Standing ovation)

MS. GINA COOPER: Thank you so very much for being here.

(Standing ovation)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you very much.

MS. GINA COOPER: Thank you so much for coming here. Thank you.

(Standing ovation)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you Netroots.

MS. GINA COOPER: Surprise.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Don't we have a great leader in the United States Congress?

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you. We ought to take that act on the road, Nancy.

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: There we go. We are on the road.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: We are on the road. That's -- well, I feel right at home here, I'll tell you.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I want to thank Gina Cooper, the executive director of Netroots Nation.

MS. GINA COOPER: Thank you.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: And all of the folks who have made this remarkable movement possible. Thank you.

And when I say "thank you," not just for the warm welcome that you just gave me, but thank you for the movement that you have created and that is building so powerfully all across this nation.

I can't tell you how important I think it is that you continue what you're doing with as much energy as you're putting into it, as much imagination and creativity and innovation.

I -- I wrote a book a little over a year ago called: The Assault on Reason that is all about how --

(Audience applauding)

MR. AL GORE: That is all about the -- the evolution of the media in our country since the very beginning and the relationship between democracy and the ability individual citizens have to take part in a meaningful dialogue that is directly connected to the way in which our nation makes decisions about our -- our future, our destiny.

Our capacity for self-determination has depended from the very start on the ability of the American people to -- to really be what our founders called "a well-informed citizenry," and to be able to hold the elected representatives accountable and to have a direct and intimate involvement with the discussion of ideas that is based on the rule of reason and searches out for the best evidence and -- and recognizes the natural tendencies in human nature for egos to clash and for people to seek power. And that's not a function of party or ideology. That's just human nature. Our founders understood that very well.

But in order to safeguard the future of our nation against a malignant manifestation of hunger for power and the exclusion of competing points of view and too much power in the hands of one person or a small group of people, it is absolutely essential that we have not only the checks and balances and separated powers and the safeguards and the Bill of Rights, even more important than all of that is the founding bedrock of our whole -- of the whole idea of our nation, which is that we will have a well-informed citizenry that is involved and engaged and will be a --

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: -- a vital part of the discussion.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: And that's what you represent. And, you know, in the television age as things have changed a lot, but the Internet and the blogs and the new ability to -- to take part actively is bringing a great new hope that we can reclaim the birthright of this nation, and you represent the -- the leading edge of that new movement to reclaim the integrity of American democracy. And I -- thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. I can't thank you enough.

(Audience applauding)

PELOSI: Isn't it exciting he's here.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I want to talk to you about the climate crisis. I made a speech a couple of days ago about the -- and I referred to it in our little dog-and-pony show here -- I'm the dog in this dog-and-pony show.

(Laughter)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: And we have an historic challenge facing us, and I am not going to belabor the reasons why we have to face the climate crisis head on, but I would like to just give you just a couple of quick facts.

The north polar ice cap is normally the size of the lower 48 states minus a tiny bit -- an area roughly the size of a medium-sized state -- 47 of the 48 states -- the scientists like to be precise on this. It's been there more or less for three million years. It is a key part of the climate system. And because of the build-up of global warming pollution, principally CO2, and the trapping of heat in the lower atmosphere that has been understood by scientists for 150 years, the temperatures have now reached the point that the North Pole is melting. And the scientists who have access to the submarine data have now told us that there is a 75 to 80 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap -- again, the size of the continental United States, during the summer months, when it's most important, will be completely melted and gone in as little as five years.

How -- how can -- how can we absorb the meaning of a magnitude -- of an event of that magnitude occurring during our watch? And if it goes, which is a near certainty now, it can come back if we act very quickly to halt the continued accumulation of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but if we continue to procrastinate and pretend it's not real and -- and reject the mandate of history that is being placed by destiny upon our generation, if we fail that test, if we reject the responsibility of being stewards for all future generations as this is unfolding, and if the heat continues to build up for decades at depth in the Arctic Ocean, then it will never come back.

And when the scientists tell us, as they have from time to time, that we may have as little as 10 years in order to stop this process less we completely lose the ability to retrieve a -- a -- a climate balance that is conducive to human civilization, when they -- when they say we -- we only have that short period of time, that's one of the things they are talking about.

So how do we internalize the importance of that decision? Well, you-all have been on the cutting edge, and I appreciate you helping to get that message out.

But one of the ways that -- that we build our capacity to respond is by sketching out a -- a plan to get from here to where we need to be. And if you look at the -- the seriousness of this climate crisis, you begin to see how it's connected to the economic crisis and to the national security threat that we face that comes from the threat of a cut off of foreign oil.

(Audience applauding)

70 percent of all of the oil we burn comes from foreign countries. Two billion dollars a day being sent overseas just for oil. The largest amount of our trade deficit, and our current account deficit, and the buildup of our national debt is coming because of our over dependence on dirty carbon fuels and -- and foreign oil and coal.

And so the economy is being hurt by rising gasoline prices and rising electricity rates. And -- and the older industries that are premised on cheap fossil fuels are being devastated by the sudden rise in -- in fossil fuels and this over dependence. And no wonder. Because the new emerging economies like the giant economy in China that has been based on imitating the -- the basic industries that were designed, most of them a hundred years ago, again, based on dirty and cheap fossil fuels, their economic growth is so rapid, their ravenous consumption of oil and coal is increasing so rapidly, their demand for these fossil fuels is just completely overwhelming the declining rate of new discoveries for oil, in -- in particular. And so the price is skyrocketing. And, you know, the idea that we can drill our way out of this is just so absurd as to not to warrant --

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: -- really serious consideration. There used to be an old-timey remedy for hangovers called "the hair of the dog that bit you." They'd recommend going in and just having another drink in the morning if you had a hangover. Well, that's sort of -- that's sort of what that reminds me of, "Oh, we have a fossil fuel crisis? Oh, well, let's -- let's just try to go back for more."

When you're in a hole, stop digging. Let's shift over to the new approach.

(Audience applauding)

And so -- so I laid out this challenge to the nation and I'll repeat it here today. The easiest and cheapest and quickest way to shift over to renewable sources of energy, is with the generation of electricity. It will take slightly longer to build a -- to convert our fleet of cars and trucks to electric vehicles, but we can do that, too. And that -- and that is a part of this challenge. And we have to build a unified national grid, that's a smart grid, and also has the underground, high voltage, long-distance transmission lines. But in keeping with that agenda, the centerpiece of it is this challenge: We have to switch our electricity generation system. We ought to make a commitment as a nation to get 100 percent of our electricity from renewable sources and carbon constraint fuels within ten years.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: It's an achievable goal. We can do it. I need your help to get that message out.

The defenders of the status quo are the ones who have dug us into this hole. They're the ones who say let's just keep on doing the same old things and expect that we'll get a different result. They are the ones who are saying, "Oh, it's just fine," to continue to be this dependent on oil from some of the most unstable and dangerous regions of the world, if we just fool ourselves by pretending that we can solve that problem by opening up a few more areas for offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive areas which wouldn't produce any oil at all for 10 to 15 years and that would be sold to China anyway.

Am I the only one that finds it strange that our country is so often fooled into picking a remedy for a problem that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem that is being talked about?

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Proposing to -- to get a slight increase in oil drilling for fuel to be sold to China 10 to 15 years from now, as a solution to our rising gasoline prices, makes about as much sense as responding to an attack from Afghanistan by invading some other country that had absolutely nothing to do with attacking us.

(Audience applauding)

But you know that the engines of distraction and the great concentrated power of communication that you've seen turned on and focused on this issue or that issue is already hard at work. They are trying to stampede the Congress. And in response to the kind of challenge that I just repeated to you, to switch over to renewable energy, they will say, Oh, we can't switch away from oil. We can't insist that the global warming pollution from coal be actually captured and -- and buried, that would be unrealistic.

In their view it is far more realistic to just sleepwalk off the cliff toward the end of civilization and enjoy ourselves in the process without feeling any responsibility to future generations. But there is another way, and there is the possibility right here in this vast room here, to mobilize public opinion and to get the word out about what the reality of our situation is. And I don't know the protocol. Is it okay for me to mention the website of the Alliance For Climate Protection here?

(Audience responds)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Some groups are sensitive about such things. I had a feeling you would not be.

The Alliance For Climate Protection is a bipartisan organization focused on one objective to bring about a sea-change in public opinion to support meaningful, bold, realistic solutions to the climate crisis. Its board has four Republicans, four Democrats and one Independent -- it is not partisan. It is focused on this single objective. And we need help. We have 1.3 million activists signed up with the WE campaign, wecansolveit.org.

We are trying to mobilize 10 million grassroots activists. We want an army of men and women and families who are out there who are focused on trying to build a political consensus across party lines in favor of meaningful solutions for the climate crisis, www.wecansolveit.org. I need your help. You rep -- you speak to and influence and connect with so many millions of people. I respectfully ask for your help in building that group of people at wecansolveit.org.

I promise you, you will not see this organization getting partisan or turn toward some agenda other than this central agenda. I promise you we will not back down. I promise you we will not slow down. I promise you we will not let up. We are in this for the long haul, and we need your help. Please, wecansolveit.org.

(Audience applauds)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Now -- and by the way, let me just say one other thing before I end. I also encourage you in wearing -- wearing another hat, I have tried to find ways to break down the walls surrounding the television medium and invite people to -- to express themselves over the television medium in a democratized way through current TV, and I invite you to go to current.com and put video expressions on television. We have 58 million subscribers and it is aimed at that goal of democratizing -- democratizing the television medium.

So let me close, ladies and gentlemen, again where I started.

You are at the cutting edge -- cutting edge of a new era of history. You will look back many years from now and tell your grandchildren about coming here to Austin, Texas and about the first two meetings of Netroots Nation, and you will tell them that this was the beginning of an effort that was historic to reclaim the integrity of American democracy. And I want them to know that you were here doing it.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you very much. God bless you.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you.

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: That was fabulous.

MS. GINA COOPER: Will you be able to join us for a few questions from the audience?

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I'm sorry?

MS. GINA COOPER: Will you be able to join us for a few questions from the audience -- Okay.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: You want me to sit here

MS. GINA COOPER: Okay.

(Audience applauding)

Q & A

MS. GINA COOPER: So surprise. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us. It's -- it's a real honor to be -- to have such two magnificent leaders here on the stage. And so just to -- to talk to our audience and to, of course, listen because we believe it all goes both ways, so thank you very much.

We have time for a little kind of lightning round maybe -- a lightning round of questions. The way it will work is we have two moderators who will ask you like, you know, they'll go -- this is how it's going to work and they'll cover the microphone, and they're going to say, What's your question? And if you start doing like this whole soliloquy they're going to say, "That's not a question," and they're going to go to the next person. So you have like --

(Audience applauding)

MS. GINA COOPER: I've been told I'm a tyrant. But -- so they'll ask you that. They'll take four questions. It will be Jeffrey, will have someone, then Nathaniel, then Jeffrey and then Nathaniel, and so there will be four questions, and then you can choose to respond how you would like -- and we'd like to go through that at least twice. I think we have time for that, if that's okay. And, of course, we'd love to see you two dialogue, if --

JEFFREY: Please stay in your chairs. I am not going to -- I would like not to be trampled here. We're going to -- we're going to take from -- we're going to go from me one side of the room to the other and back and put up four questions at a time to get as many as we can. And here's our first question:

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 1: First of all, thanks so much for -- for coming here. Question is: Would you accept the position in an Obama administration in order to help push these much needed changes?

(Audience applauding)

JEFFREY: Thanks. And the next question?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Do you want me to answer that now or --

MS. GINA COOPER: Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: No. No. I'm asking a question about procedure. I thought I heard you saying you were --
MS. GINA COOPER: We're going to do four questions and then --

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Okay.

MS. GINA COOPER: -- you get to answer which one.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I just wanted to confirm that.

MS. GINA COOPER: Yes, sir.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I wanted to jot that down quickly. Go ahead.

NATHANIEL: This is our second question.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 2: Vice President Gore, I'm Orange Clouds and I've heard that meat causes more carbon emissions than our cars. Is this true and what should we do?

JEFFREY: Okay. Here's the next question.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 3: I live in West Virginia, and I'm very concerned about what's going on with mountaintop removal --

(Audience applauding)

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 3: -- as well as everybody's belief that coal-to-liquid technology is the solution to problems just for West Virginia and many of the other states like that, and I'd like to hear what you think about that.

NATHANIEL: And our last question.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 4: Speaker Pelosi, you mentioned that we would hold the Administration accountable with warrentless wiretapping. My Democratic congressman told me the same thing without elaboration. How would we do that?

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Okay. I will answer the first three questions as I think they were directed at me and then invite Speaker Pelosi to address any of them as she chooses to, and then the -- the fourth question is obviously to her.

The first question. I am really honored by the suggestion that some have made that I consider taking a position of some kind in the next administration. And I -- I want to convey my respect for the -- for the idea even as I explain to you why I don't think that's the best thing for me to do. I could be wrong. But I really feel as if the highest and best use of whatever talents and experience I've gained in my life is to focus on trying to enlarge the political space within which elected officials and cabinet members address this climate crisis.

I have seen first hand 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. And so I'm devoting my life to trying to get -- to bring about a sea-change in -- in public opinion across party lines that supports the truly massive policy change that we have to have. And, again, that's why I encourage you to help sign up for -- people at -- at wecansolveit.org.

Now, the second question. What about the -- what about the prominence of meat in the diet that many of us consume and its connection to the production of global warming pollution.

Actually, one of the factors right now in the global trends in food prices and ethanol and so forth is the increasing meat intensity in the diet of countries like China that are imitating what the United States has -- has long had in -- in developed countries. And it is true that it would be healthier for us as individuals and healthier for the planet if we consumed less meat. And I -- I acknowledge that.

And there is an undercurrent in -- in the -- the question. You didn't state it, but I understand that part of the question is how come that hasn't been a more prominent part of this effort so far. And I guess I will plead guilty to the -- the idea that we can only do so much at once.

I myself am a meat either and maybe that has -- has had a -- an impact on my definition of the problem. I think that -- but I want to forthrightly acknowledge that this is a significant part of what needs to be done, and we've got to walk before we run. And this, you know, none of us are perfect, and I think that we have to get at the heart of the problem and then get these other things to be a part of it along the way.

Now, mountaintop mining is an atrocity. It is an outrage. And my wife, Tipper, and I give out an award at the Nashville Film Festival every year for the best documentary on these environmental issues. And this year's winner was called Montaintop Mining, and I learned more about it from that movie. It -- what they do is -- you-all know they just chop off -- and then they dump the -- the -- the detritus, the rock and the dirt into the creeks, and it just poisons the whole ecosystem.

It is part and parcel of the same dysfunctional energy system that is causing global warming. It is -- it is also facilitated by the same moral blindness to the consequences of what we're doing. And by the way, it's all done in an automated way and that's why the coal miners lost all their jobs. And when we make this transition to renewable fuels, we have to keep them in mind. We ought to guarantee a good job in the fresh air and sunshine for every single coal miner who has been affected by the transition over to renewable fuel.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: One final point. The idea of turning coal into liquid fuels for our cars is -- it's insane. And here is why.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Here is why. It is true that if you looked only at the dependence of the United States on -- on foreign oil. And if you didn't care about anything else in the world, it would be theoretically possible at huge expense to squeeze the liquid out of coal and put it into gas tanks. It would be enormously expensive. But the other problem is it would vastly increase the amount of CO2 from each gallon of fuel that's burnt. So we've got to walk and chew gum at the same time. We've got to end our dependence on foreign oil and save the habitability of the planet by -- by switching not just from oil to coal liquid, but from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: I -- I know that one of the questions was specifically addressed to me, but I wanted to touch on some of what has been said up until now.

First, let me just say this. I thank Vice President Gore for being a visionary, for having the courage to go out there, that with the knowledge, with the vision and the plan, and to attract people to this important, important endeavor. I say that as the Speaker of the House. I see on a daily basis the need for what he is doing, and I thank him for his visionary leadership. But as a grandmother, I am particularly grateful to him for what he is doing.

We, in our country, have a choice between yesterday and tomorrow. That is the choice. The forces that work now are wedded to the past. They're not even in the present. They are wedded to the past. And what the Vice President is giving us is a path to the future that is healthy for children and other living things; and as a grandmother I am very grateful to him for that.

I am grateful to him also for, obviously, all of the work that he has done to preserve our planet, but also for the leadership that he provided in the telecommunications issue. Without him there would be Netroots Nation. We would simply not have the technology. We would simply live not have the technology.

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: You know that. You know that. You know that.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I think I'll refrain from saying it.

(Laughter)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: But I saw it as I member of Congress how he fought for this and how the grassroots aspect of this would not be where it is today without his leadership.

Let me say this about -- associate myself with something that the -- the Vice President said about the -- I'll use the word "denial" that the status quo agents out there are advocating.

The President is saying, "drill, drill, drill," as an excuse for a failed energy policy. And so I say to those who say, Well, the question is asked if at the pump -- the price at the pump can come down, if we can drill it in protected areas, then they support that.

I said, Don't associate -- don't validate his misrepresentation. Drilling in protected areas will do nothing at the price at the pump for 10 years and it's $.02 at that. So there is 68 million acres in the "lower 48," to use the Vice President's term, which are approved for leasing. And we are saying to the oil companies use it or lose it. You have these leases, use it. There's no reason --

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: -- there's no reason to go into these protected areas that has any relationship to the price at a pump today unless -- and if that -- if drilling is what you want to do, we approve of that.

And in Alaska, don't drill in the ANWR protect -- and violate a refuge. But you can go into the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which has much more oil, is available for leasing. Why don't you do that instead? Because they are looking for an excuse, not a reason.

And the President has said --

(Audience applause)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: The President has said that our economy would be better off if we could drill in the outer Continental Shelf protected areas.

Don't give him any validation on that score, I tell my colleagues, because, first of all, it isn't true, but that's that seems to be a minor thing with him. But -- but you don't have to say -- the Vice President is here as the leader of wecansolveit.org, a nonpartisan -- bipartisan organization that is not wedded to politics but to policy. I am here on a different capacity. And I am saying to you, support that. It's very, very important. And the solutions we need must be done in a bipartisan way. But don't buy this bill of goods, and help us convince the American people.

We want to increase the supply. You can drill where you have the environmental permits to do so. We want to help the price at the pump. You can do so immediately by: Mr. President, pull the cork. You can free our oil by releasing at least one to -- or no more than 10 percent of the oil in the Spread, which is paid for by the American people. It would have the immediate effect of reducing the price at the pump in 10 years -- 10 days instead of the 10 years that the President is proposing. Free our oil.

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: So I hope that you will join us in spreading that word, to call the White House, e-mail the White House to free our oil. And you will see legislation to that affect before we leave for August, to free our oil and also to end speculation, which undo speculation, which may contribute to the price at the pump.

NATHANIEL: Can we take a few more questions –

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: No. Well, let me get -- no --

NATHANIEL: -- from the floor?

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: If I just might -- want to get to the point. You asked how were we going to increase accountability of the Bush Administration, or any president. Democrat or Republican, we don't want any president to have undue authority in it and infringement of our rights.

And in the legislation for the first time there is a reporting to the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee, for the first time. This is revolutionary. And, of course, we have the Inspector General, which was greatly resisted, but which is in the bill to hold them accountable as well.

JEFFREY: We're going to take a few more questions from the floor now.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 5: Mr. Vice President, can't we simply follow the plans that were put forward by Buck Minster Fuller in the 1960s to put wind turbines on the top of all the high voltage powered towers or other similar and efficient use of existing infrastructure?

NATHANIEL: Thank you. And our second question?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 6: I'm a science teacher and I hear a lot of discussions about science, but with No Child Left Behind, our kids are not getting any science instruction, no training in how to think intellect -- you know, using inferences and getting data and analyzing that. There's lots of kids that are not learning science; this has been going on for eight years. I want to know. When I hear freshman people thinking about coming into Congress telling me maybe we'll fund No Child Left Behind. Let's end it.

JEFFREY: We'll have one more question from this side.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 7: Thank you both for your leadership. Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Gore has issued a challenge to every leader in this country. And I think we want to know will you accept his challenge that America should be powered by 100 percent clean renewable electricity within 10 years?

(Audience applauding)

NATHANIEL: All right. Another question from this side of the room?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 8: Computers and televisions contain lots of toxins. Right now our electronic waste is going -- dumped on developing countries and in prisons and in our landfills. Will Congress stop the dumping of electronic waste on developing countries and keep it out of U.S. federal prisons?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I thought I would take the first and the fourth?

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: Whatever -- okay.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Okay. The first question was on Buck Minster Fuller's idea years ago of putting wind turbines on top of power lines.

You know, I think that the -- the basic idea of making much greater use of wind turbines is, of course, a tremendously important idea. That particular design he might reconsider in this day and time because of the expense of -- you have to build new structures to hold them is the basic idea, but -- and you have to place them not where the support already exists, but where the wind blows. And there are -- there are maps of wind/rivers that are similar to the -- to rivers filled with water. When you find where those are, that's where the wind turbine goes.

That source of power is competitive today. You are seeing T. Boone Pickens invest a billion dollars of his own money to put up wind turbines -- it's competitive here in the state of Texas. They just approved these new height transmission lines to take the wind power from where it's produced, where the wind is blowing consistently to the areas where it's used.

Now, one minor point I don't -- here, the combination of wind and solar and geothermal is really important, because they have different characteristics. Wind is intermittent. It -- it can peak and fall when the wind blows and when it slows down, and that can drive the utility managers nuts because they have to have a steady flow of electricity.

Some forms of the new concentrating solar energy that -- the ones that use the mirrors to concentrate the energy to boil water and produce electricity just like coal plants and nuclear plants, that's constant, and they have onsite thermal storage that can be used to even out the peaks in the wind.

Sorry to get into the weeds here, but I want to make the point that when we make an all out commitment and do both of these things along with geothermal, then some of the problems with wind, for example, subside. We can -- they are better together.

Now, I am going to defer to Speaker Pelosi on No Child Left Behind. I did want to just briefly comment, I agree with you. It's really harmful to have not only science education, but also arts, and other kinds of --

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: -- and athletics pushed out of the experience our children have in schools in order to teach to a test and to respond to a bureaucratic.

Now, there are some good elements in a -- in a national program, like the one that needs to be improved greatly now, to get more resources into public education, but I'll defer on that.

Now, finally on the e-waste issue -- very serious issue. I'm on the board of a computer company. I have been deeply involved in trying to get -- and with some success by the way -- a lot of the companies, including Dell, which is headquartered not far from here, and HP, along with Apple are really focusing on ways to sharply reduce the generation of this and make it fully recyclable, but they've got -- they've all got a long way to go.

I do give them credit for -- for understanding the -- the importance of the challenge and -- and starting a movement in the right direction. There's been a lot of progress, but there needs to be a lot more. Now, I'm going to defer to the -- to the Speaker.

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you very much. The first question that was addressed to me was, Does the Congress accept the challenge of having all of our electricity come -- spring from our renewable energy resources that the Vice President has challenged us to. Let me first say, I salute him for that challenge. It is absolutely possible to do so.

Last -- when we passed our energy bill last year, which had the many -- of provisions which improve efficiency and conservation, in addition to the CAFE standards, an important part of it in the House of Representatives was the Renewable Electricity Standard.

Lloyd Doggett who was on the stage earlier -- I hope he will come up at the end as well, was a very -- was a leader in pushing us on the Floor of the House. Everybody told us that there wasn't a chance in the world that we could pass it in the House, because I had the Oil Patch, the Cold Patch, the Car Patch, the Gas Patch, you know. We had a lot of people who were not supportive of what we wanted to do there. Not everybody from those regions was opposed to what we were doing. But in a bipartisan way we passed it and we -- to the surprise of everyone we won by 30 votes in the House, with bipartisan support -- Republican vote.

We sent it to the Senate, the Renewable Electricity Standards. Very, very important. That means that you must have a certain amount of the electricity produced from renewables.

We sent it to the Senate. Wouldn't you know, 59 votes. 59 votes. The President didn't want it. He wasn't going to sign a bill with the Renewable Electricity Standard in it. We're going to bring it up again before the adjournment of the Congress. We're -- which is by the end of September. We're going to bring this up again. We're going to send it to the Senate and see that if in the course of nine or ten months that have transpired that there is some more enlightenment on the Senate side, because this is absolutely essential as to how we go forward. But let me say this all becomes a lot easier with bigger Democratic majorities in November and a Democratic president in the White House to sign the bill, to sign the bill.

JEFFREY: Let's take a few more questions from --

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: And No Child Left Behind, the -- immediately upon passage of No Child Left Behind, I as an appropriator saw that we were -- we had a problem because the first budget the President sent to us had no funding for No Child Left Behind. We are tens of billions of dollars behind in funding. A mandate without the money, a disservice to our children.

It is -- George Miller who is the Chairman of the Committee in the House has told me, we will -- we will revisit this, but we must revisit it with a new President of the United States, so that it is made to be there for our kids so they have all the opportunity they need and the standards to -- that -- that will be helpful to them. So have no fear. It's not being renewed this year. We won't take it up unless we have a president who understands why this is important to our children.

NATHANIEL: Couple more quick questions. Couple more.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 9: One of the obstacles to wind and solar is storage. And I am wondering what is being done to further the solution to this in battery technology.

JEFFERY: Next question.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 10: Some people have proposed using nuclear energy to decrease emissions. What do you think?

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: Do you want to start with those two?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: You want to go with just those two?

NATHANIEL: The next question.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Okay.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 11: Hi. Today in an interview with Der Spiegel Magazine, Prime Minister Maliki basically endorsed Barack Obama's plan for a time line for withdrawal from Iraq and -- and you used his name. Will you follow up with legislation in the Congress to -- to follow that through?

JEFFREY: Okay. And our fourth question.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER NO. 12: What can we do about global warming and its affects on countries in Africa where it's going to affect tyranny and ethnic conflict and genocide.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I am going to address the three of those that are at least partially directed to me. But I wanted to begin with one brief comment on the last exchange prior to these questions.

I am -- I am sitting here next to one of the greatest leaders that we have ever had in the United States Congress.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: And I am just -- you know, I went to the House of Representatives 32 years ago. My -- my father served in the house and in the Senate for 32 years. I -- when I was born, my -- my father was in the House of Representatives and knew Nancy's father, who was the mayor of Baltimore and a great Democratic mayor. And --

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: Baltimore.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: D'Alesandro. And -- if every member of the Democratic caucus had the depth of conviction and the points of view and the passionate desire to do the right thing that Nancy Pelosi had, we wouldn't -- has -- we wouldn't have the problems that we have in the United States Congress.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: And I just want to express my gratitude to her.

But I say that to make a point. If we elect a Democratic president, which I hope and pray we will, if we increase our Democratic majorities in the House and in the Senate, which I hope and pray we will, we will still have a problem. We will still have a challenge. Because the strength of special interests, the dominance
of old ways of thinking, the persistence of denial are still obstacles. That is why what you're -- what you're doing building this grassroots awareness for the need to reclaim the integrity of our democracy by opening up the dialogue to individual citizens is so crucial. And on -- and on the climate issue, that is why it is so crucial. Forgive me again for saying this, to help build this grassroots movement, wecansolveit.org.

Now, on storage. First question was on storage and batteries. There are two -- there are several different kinds of storage. All the attention has been on batteries. There is a huge amount of investment going in to improving the existing battery technology that's out there. These old sodium batteries that have been around for more than a hundred years are still probably the best for large amounts, lithium ion for smaller amounts have made a big difference. But there needs to -- there need to be some basic breakthroughs. There's a lot of research going into that. But there is a form of energy storage called "thermal storage." And when the -- the concentrating solar thermal plants produce energy, they store six to eight hours of it on site. It's actually four now, it will soon be six to eight -- on site in -- in thermal -- in salts in thermal form, which is actually very efficient over a short term. So that is what we have now, but we need to push for more basic breakthroughs.

And by the way, Photable TEGS, the form of solar energy, as you know, that directly converts the -- the sun's rays into electricity is also a big wave of the future. It's competitive in certain niches now. The cost is coming down radically. I used an example in my speech two days ago that I want to share with you.

The specialized silicon that is used to make solar cells was selling just two years ago -- or late last year at $300 per kilogram. The forward contracts for delivery late next year have it down to $50 per kilogram. Now that's because the constraint is not the raw material. They make out -- they make it out of sand. The constraint is the number of factories and facilities that convert the sand into solar cells, and when the demand starts to increase, the price goes down. Here's the crucial difference. When demand for oil and coal goes up, the price goes up. When demand for solar and wind goes up, the price goes down.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Now, nuclear. I used to represent Oakridge, Tennessee where my constituents were immune to the effects of radiation, so I was enthusiastic about --

(Laughter)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I was enthusiastic about nuclear power. I've become skeptical because of the many problems it faces. I think nuclear will play a role. I think it will play a -- I think there will be a small increase in the role it plays. I don think there will be a large increase, not only because of the problems that have been discussed, the lack of a proven long-term safe storage site and the vulnerability to terrorist attack, the possible of operator accidents some of them -- well, I think -- let's just assume for the moment that those problems will all be solved. That still leaves two.

First of all, for the eight years I served in the White House, every single nuclear weapons proliferation problem we had was connected to a reactor program. And if we chose nuclear as a silver bullet for the world's conversion away from fossil fuels, we would put tens of thousands of these reactors in places that we wouldn't want to see a nuclear weapons capability emerge. And it would put pressure on the supply of uranium and there would be pressure to switch over to plutonium in a highly enriched uranium economy which would vastly worsen the possibility of nuclear weapons proliferation. But then, finally, there's the problem of economics. They are very expensive. They take a long time to build. They only come in one size, extra large. And if you --

(Laughter)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: And if you are a utility manager and you are facing uncertainty about the demand for electricity due to rising prices, you don't want to bet all of your chips on one mega project that is going to take 12 to 15 years to build with escalating costs and may leave you holding the bag. You want to preserve your options by going to smaller increments and that's why Florida Power & Light just invested in a photable TEG electricity generation system because it made economic sense.

(Audience applauding)

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: That's why the state of Texas is moving toward wind energy. The economics of renewables are becoming very attractive. The cost is coming down. Fossil fuels are going up. Nuclear is the most expensive option of all, so I don't think it's going to be the answer, although it will play some role.

Now, finally. Developing countries, including those in the -- the continent of Africa. The World Bank, the IMF, the United Nations have all been telling us for years that the harshest impacts of global warming are going to be on the developing countries. And the greatest benefits of a global Marshall -- I proposed 20 years ago a global Marshall plan to have a partnership between the developed countries and the developing countries to solve the -- the climate crisis. Many of the solutions, putting up distributing energy systems and solar cells really create the -- exactly the kind of jobs in these developing countries that we greatly need.

And, here's the thing about CO2 -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said so many years ago that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Well, CO2 increases anywhere on this planet are a threat to the future livability of this planet for human beings everywhere. We ought to be in partnership helping these developing countries shift over to renewable sources and to sharply reduce their CO2, stop burning the forest, which represents about 20 percent of the CO2 emissions every year and create a genuine international partnership to solve this crisis, and in the process address extreme poverty and disease in the developing countries.

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: I associate myself with the remarks of the Vice President in the interest of time and go right to the war issue.

It's interesting to hear what's being said by the Administration, by the Prime Minster of Iraq, by our candidates for President in relationship to where we are this place in time and this decision about the war.

On the one hand, the Administration is saying, Everything is great. Security has been achieved in Iraq, but on the other hand we can't bring our troops home. How does that make sense?

You know the purpose of the surge was to create a secure time so that the government of Iraq could make the political changes necessary to bring reconciliation to Iraq.

We've been assured that the secure time has occurred. The Iraqi government has not stepped up to the plate, whether it's the Carbon law, whether it's provincial elections, whether it is the -- the review of the Constitution, all of the things that they were supposed to do, they really haven't done, or they've taken one step and then ignored it.

So with the Prime Minster saying it's time for you to go, I think it's time for our country to sit down with the Iraqis and work that plan out, respectful of what the Prime Minister said, and respectful of the will of the American people who have been against this war for a very long time. A war, by the way, that we have been in two years longer than we were in World War II. Two years longer. And we owe it our troops who are there. We owe them so much more as we discussed earlier.

So I think it would be a good idea now for to us have a high level meeting with the Iraqis to work out the terms of our redeployment out of Iraq. It will make the region more stable. It will make the American people safer and enable us to focus on the real war on terrorism, as the Vice President alluded to -- or not alluded to, slammed home earlier, that the way to fight terrorism in one place is not to invade another country.

So I -- I don't -- this is -- the end could be in sight. But I tell you this -- and, again, I am sitting -- I move away from the Vice President, because he's here in a nonpartisan capacity -- this will not happen without the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Will not happened.

So -- so we have a choice between the past and the future. And that's what this election is about. And whether it's we're dealing with energy and God willing this will be done in a bipartisan way in terms of how we reduce our dependence on foreign oil, grow our economy with these green jobs, protect our environment and preserve the planet. It needs to be done in a bipartisan way.

In order for that to happen we need the information -- the best possible information. And the Vice President has been the single most important force in the world for bringing that for the forefront and that's why we're so proud he was recognized with the Nobel Prize this year.

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: And I think that's a good place for us to end.

(Audience applauding)

MADAM SPEAKER PELOSI: So, again, support wecansolveit.com -- .org -- .org. And get out there and elect a democratic majority in the House and the Senate; and a new President of the United States, Barack Obama. Thank you Netroots Nation.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you.