'Meet the Press' transcript for July 20, 2008

MR. BROKAW:  I don't have to tell you that there are a good many political fights going on right now, to say nothing of what's going to happen in the future, and also you have some competition.  Anyone who's been watching this broadcast or television recently has seen a familiar American figure and what he has in mind.  Let's listen to some of that.

(Videotape)

MR. T. BOONE PICKENS:  (From political advertisement) I'm T. Boone Pickens. I've been an oil man my whole life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of.  And I have a plan.  In the coming weeks, I'm going to share the details of that plan to use American technology and alternative energy to slash our dependency and break foreign oil's stranglehold on us.

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW:  If you go to his Web site, he'll tell you that he wants to shift to wind to produce electricity and then shift natural gas to public transportation.  And when he took a look at your plan, this is what he had to say.  "Former Vice President Al Gore's put forward a framework of a plan that is focused on global warming and climate issues.  My plan is aimed squarely at breaking the stranglehold that foreign oil has on our country and the $700 billion annual impact it has on our economy.  We import 70 percent of our oil and that number is growing larger every year." As you know.  "Vice President Gore's plan does not address this enormous problem.  It is clear that he and I have two different objectives, and our plans should be viewed with that in mind." Don't you like the idea that T. Boone Pickens is out there on the playing field now and has what appears to be an innovative idea?

VICE PRES. GORE:  I do.  And, and I think it's really significant that one of the most successful oil industry figures is now investing a billion dollars of his own money in windmills.  He's looked at the figures that I was sharing with you a moment ago.  Wind is competitive.  Just this past week, we, we saw Texas approve massive new transmission lines to use wind power for--as a substitute for the old ways of producing electricity.  Now, the--I don't see him as a competitor on this.  There are really a lot of common features in, in what he's saying.  Now, the, the idea of using natural gas for, for cars, natural gas, I think, is an important transition fuel.  It has fewer CO2 emissions than either coal or oil, especially coal.  I think that it makes more sense to put the bulk of our effort to transform the car and truck fleet towards electricity because electricity can be produced from renewable sources indefinitely.  It's inexhaustible.  There's enough solar energy that hits this--the surface of the planet in 40 minutes to provide a full year's worth of energy for the entire world.  We just have to listen to what the engineers and scientists are telling us about the advances in the efficiency and the reductions in cost of how we can use solar and wind and also geothermal.

MR. BROKAW:  But when it comes to T. Boone Pickens, shouldn't it be "all hands on deck"?

VICE PRES. GORE:  Yep.

MR. BROKAW:  And don't you approve of the idea that he should go forward with this?

VICE PRES. GORE:  He, he, he wants to, to move...

MR. BROKAW:  Natural gas.

VICE PRES. GORE:  ...natural gas in one direction and move wind in another direction and convert the fleet.  The wind is producing electricity and the--then he wants to move natural gas into cars.  But if we're going to convert cars and trucks, we, we should do it one time toward electricity.

But there are vehicles running today on natural gas.  Chattanooga, Tennessee, has natural gas buses.  It's, it's a respectable option.  But I think that, I, I think that in the long term the better approach is to make this investment in a unified national grid that has low losses in transmission, that has the Smart Grid features that allows individuals to put up photovoltaic solar panels and sell electricity back into the grid and shift over to renewable sources.

Now, the other thing that Boone Pickens agrees on is when he says we really "can't drill our way out" of this because the new discoveries--and he knows about the new discoveries, he's got chapter and verse--they have been coming in at a much slower rate than the demand for oil and coal have been increasing.

MR. BROKAW:  This comes under the heading of politics makes strange bedfellows.  You have common cause with T. Boone Pickens, who four years ago was a principal financier of the swift boat attack ads...

VICE PRES. GORE:  Yeah.

MR. BROKAW:  ...against your friend John Kerry.

VICE PRES. GORE:  Yeah.  And, and I think it's an illustration of how this, this climate crisis has to, to push us as Americans to take this issue out of the old partisan squabbling and political fighting that we're--we have to be in this as Americans.  And America should be leading the world community to confront this climate crisis.

MR. BROKAW:  Speaking of which, it was not so long ago that you called President Bush a "moral coward" on this issue for not standing up to his financial interests.  For the last two years Democrats have dominated the Congress of the United States--the Senate and the House of Representatives. There have been no major, sweeping initiatives coming out of this Democratic-controlled Congress.  How would you characterize that?

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, I think that when, when you don't have 60 votes in the Senate to overcome filibusters, nothing can happen.

MR. BROKAW:  But you can put it on the agenda and try to move the country.

VICE PRES. GORE:  And they have.  And, and they haven't succeeded because there is still a close battle in the Congress.  But, sure, I think the Congress ought to do more, and I think that's one reason why this upcoming election is really important.  But I, I want to see both parties and the Libertarians and others also coming in with constructive proposals to, to solve this.  I think the focus now is past President Bush toward what's going to happen in January when a new president takes office, a new Congress is sworn in.  I'm trying to enlarge the political space within which this debate takes place and reset the debate so that we focus on how, as a practical matter, when we have the political will to act, there's a concrete plan in place to really shift over to renewable energy.

MR. BROKAW:  Did Hillary Clinton reset this debate when she said there should be a summer holiday on the federal gas tax?

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, I, I, I don't want to get into a primary battle that I successfully avoided getting into while it was going on.

MR. BROKAW:  That's not a primary battle.  She's speaking to an issue...

VICE PRES. GORE:  I didn't...

MR. BROKAW:  ...that you feel very strongly on.

VICE PRES. GORE:  I, I disagreed with those who wanted a so-called gas tax holiday.  And I think taking it from that to sort of the whole...

MR. BROKAW:  Was it irresponsible on her part, do you think, at this time?

VICE PRES. GORE:  I'm not going to label, I'm not going to label friends of mine irresponsible.  I think that particular proposal wasn't one I agreed with, was in response to what people are feeling with gasoline prices.  And we've got to respond to the gasoline price increase.

But here's the point, Tom.  The people of this country are ready for bolder, more dramatic answers.  The real way to bring gasoline prices down is not by going back to, to try more of the same things that have not worked in the past, but, but to say, "Wait a minute, now's time--now is the time for really dramatic shift over to renewable energy."

MR. BROKAW:  But that gets back to what I was saying earlier.  Is it time for American politicians, Republicans and Democrats and independents alike, to say to the American people, "We're going to have to go through some pain here; $4 gasoline, it's a price that you're paying.  We're going to have to get through this.  You can't expect the government to bail you out.  We're going to have to move to another level in which we can produce alternative energy, and you're going to have to live with that."

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, I mean, I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but essentially yes, it's time for people--for policymakers and candidates to say to the American people what they already know, gimmicks are not going to work. We've had these little...

MR. BROKAW:  But then what do you say to the trucker or to the delivery man on Main Street or to the person who has to commute in California an hour every day about what's going on in their lives because this has become a tax that runs a couple of hundred dollars a week.  What do they do in the meantime?

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, it's a tax that we're now paying to Saudi Arabia and, and to the--and Venezuela and, and the other foreign oil producers that are--that are providing seven out of every 10 gallons of gas that, that, that we burn.  And the price will continue to go up until we stop being suckered by this game that we've been trapped in.  Incremental baby steps are no longer responsible proposals.  Now is the time--and, and rarely, such times do come in the history of our nation.  Now is one of them.  We have to have a bipartisan commitment to change that game, to break out of this trap and shift over to renewable sources of energy.  You know, as we do that, the price of the renewable energy options go down.  Think about what happened in the computer revolution.  They--we saw cost reductions for silicon computer chips of 50 percent every year and a half for the last 40 years.  We're now beginning to see the same kind of sharp cost reductions as the demand grows for solar cells, they build new, more efficient facilities to build these solar cells.  They're made out of sand.  We're not going to run out of that. And when we have the investment to make more of them, the--this--the cost goes down.

We're now seeing concentrating solar plants in the desert where they put up these mirrors and catch the sunlight to boil water and produce electricity. They're signing contracts for 12 cents a kilowatt hour right now, which is competitive.  With the long distance transmissions lines, underground, very efficient, that take it from the centers where the solar power facilities are to the cities where the electricity's burned, this is going to bring energy costs, costs down.  But we have to make up our minds that it's time to make the investment in switching over from this debilitating, dangerous, costly, dependence on foreign energy sources and polluting sources that are destroying the livability of the planet and make up our minds that we're going to do the right thing for ourselves and future generations.

MR. BROKAW:  Well, let's talk about your role in that debate.  This is what Senator Obama had to say about Al Gore in a future Obama administration, if there is one.

(Videotape, April 2, 2008):

SEN. BARACK OBAMA:  I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the--at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem.

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW:  And this is what your old friend James Carville, who helped make you a vice president once before, had to say about what Obama ought to be thinking.  "If I were [Obama] I would ask Al Gore to serve as his vice president and energy czar in his administration to reduce our consumption and reliance on foreign energy sources." This was your response on CNN.  "Would you serve in the next administration if you were invited?" "No.  No.  You know, I haven't ruled out the idea of getting back into the political process at some point"--this was in December of last year--"at some point in the future.  Don't expect to, but if I did get back, it would be as a candidate for president, not in any other position."

How can you, given the passion that you feel about this issue and the enormity of the, of the dimensions that we're dealing with here, turn down the idea that you could be in the administration as a vice president or as an energy czar or as both?

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, I really respect and appreciate what Senator Obama and my good friend James Carville and others have said, and I appreciate Senator McCain making some generous comments.  But I personally feel that my own best role is to try to bring about a sea change in public opinion. Because one of the big challenges our country has faced is that policymakers who know the right thing to do run up against a wall set up all around them by the lobbyists and the special interests and the defenders of the status quo, and the only way we're going to break out of this trap is by mobilizing public opinion with a clear vision of exactly what is at stake for our country.  I think that's my highest and best use in, in public life.

MR. BROKAW:  But there's no--there is no power like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for setting the agenda, for drawing attention to it, for moving the country, and for moving Congress.  Mr. Vice President, no one knows that better than you do.

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, that's correct, and I don't dispute that.  I'm under no illusion that there's any position with as much influence as that of president, and, actually, I tried to get that position.  But that didn't happen, and so I'm trying to serve in other ways.  And, you know, I could be wrong about the decision that going back into government is not the, the right thing to do.  I could be wrong.  But this feels...

MR. BROKAW:  Could you, could you be talked into going back into government?

VICE PRES. GORE:  No.  This feels like the right thing for, for me to be doing.

MR. BROKAW:  It's Shermanesque.

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, a general...

MR. BROKAW:  There are--under no conditions would you go back into government.

VICE PRES. GORE:  General Sherman famously said, "If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve." I already ran--I, I, I'm not running for the--I didn't run for the nomination, and I've already been elected and didn't serve.

MR. BROKAW:  There's no way that you could go back in...

VICE PRES. GORE:  Joking about that.

MR. BROKAW:  ...with or without the help of the U.S. Supreme Court?

VICE PRES. GORE:  Well, I do not--I mean, I made a decision in this past election cycle for the nomination and the one before that not to be a candidate again, and I'm, I'm comfortable with the fact that what I'm doing now is, is of use.  I am going to continue having these so-called solution summits all over the country, meeting with engineers and scientists and CEOs and people who are actually hard at work building these new energy--renewable energy systems.  And, you know, if you go out and talk to the people who are in the laboratories and who are putting these new systems in, into place, actually building them, the debates on Capitol Hill are really kind of out of date in the sense that the new, more efficient and cost-effective renewable energy options are a--very exciting and, and they're ready to use, especially since coal and oil are continuing to go up in price.

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