July 17, 2008 Gore pushes alternative energy in DC Play video

(NECN/ABC) - For former vice president Al Gore, the inconvenient truth of the current state of the environment and the economy, has reached critical urgency.

Gore: "The survival of the U.S. of America as we know it is a risk." Gore called on the us to produce all electricity from renewable and carbon free sources within 10 years. He challenged Washington to approach this goal with the same fervor President Kennedy gave to putting a man on the moon in the sixties.

GORE "Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery." Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his environmental activism, says the stakes are high: that national security is compromised by America's dependence on foreign oil. And that the country's economic future will be crippled by the impact of spiking fuel prices.

GORE: "The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 a gallon gasoline."

But critics say our fuel shortage and the impact of climate change have to be addressed in partnership with other countries, such as India and China. these nations are growing economies that have enormous demand for energy and at the same time they're major polluters .

SEN. GEORGE VOINOVICH R-OH "The Chinese are using 80% of the coal today and putting 2 coal-fired plants on each week."

ON THE SAME DAY GORE SPOKE IN WASHINGTON, DC, TEXAS

TOOK ANOTHER STEP TOWARD HAVING THE NATION'S LARGEST WIND POWER PROJECT. THE PLAN WOULD BUILD NEW TRANSMISSION LINES TO BRING WIND ENERGY FROM GUSTY WESTERN STATES TO TEXAN CITIES.