Al Gore's Big House

Poor Al Gore. Critics of his environmental campaign are calling his Greek Revival style home in Belle Meade area of Nashville, Tennessee a McMansion. Some architects were noisily grumpy when Gore was hired to give a keynote presentation at this year's AIA convention.

The stone-throwing turned fierce in February when a small conservative group, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, issued this press release: Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”. The group claimed that Gore's 10,000-square-foot home uses 20 times as much electricity as the average American home.

Gore's defenders have been quick to point out that Gore balances out 100% of his electricity use by purchasing energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind, and methane gas. He also invests heavily in projects that help reduce energy consumption. And besides, defenders ask, isn't Gore's message about global warming too important to quibble about his electric bill?

Environmentally-conscious building design was the theme of this year's AIA convention. Despite the naysayers, Al Gore's speech received thunderous applause from an audience of several thousand architects, according to this report in San Antonio Express-News: Gore sees 'spiritual crisis' in warming.

More:

• Al Gore's Big House: Photo in the NY Times
• Olbermann on Gore’s Energy Use: Setting the Record Straight: Video from MSNBC
• Calculate Your Impact on the Environment: Fill in the blanks on Gore's Inconvenient Truth Web site. Watch the window near the top of the page to see your total score.