Group blasts Gore's high utility bill

NASHVILLE, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A think tank has accused former U.S. Vice President Al Gore of hypocrisy for using high amounts of electricty at his suburban Nashville home.

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research says Gore, who starred in "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary about global warming that won an Academy Award, used nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours at his home in 2006, far surpassing the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours, ABC News reported Tuesday.

"If this were any other person with $30,000-a-year in utility bills, I wouldn't care," said Drew Johnson, the Center's president. "But he tells other people how to live and he's not following his own rules."

Kalee Kreider, a spokesperson for the Gore family, said the former vice president and his wife, Tipper, both work out of their home and the power they use comes from the local Green Power Switch program, which uses electricity generated from renewable resources.

"I think what you're seeing here is the last gasp of the global warming skeptics," said one former Gore adviser. "They've completely lost the debate on the issue so now they're just attacking their most effective opponent."