There have been a number of responses to this claim. TIME magazine, in an article published on 28 February 2007, stated that "A Gore spokeswoman said the former vice president invests in enough renewable energy to make up for the home's power consumption [...] 'To balance out other carbon emissions, the Gores invest money in projects to reduce energy consumption' Kreider said." TIME also noted that the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, "got its figures from Nashville Electric Service. But company spokeswoman Laurie Parker said the utility never got a request from the policy center and never gave it any information." The BBC, also quoted Gore's spokeswoman Kalee Kreider as stating that these figures reflect the fact that the Gores "worked from home". Kreider continued: "The family was trying to reduce carbon emissions by getting energy from a local programme which generated energy from renewable resources such as solar and wind power instead of fossil fuels [...] They were also in the process of installing solar panels and low-energy light bulbs to reduce consumption from the grid." It was also pointed out that the Gore family vehicle is a Lexis hybrid SUV. Kreider suggested that the attacks on Gore's energy use was political stating; "Sometimes when people don't like the message, in this case that global warming is real, it's convenient to attack the messenger." A former Gore aide said he suspected a campaign by Mr Gore's political opponents.
“ Considering that [Gore] spends an overwhelming majority of his time advocating on behalf of and trying to affect change on this issue, it's not surprising that people who have a vested interest in protecting the status quo would go after him. ”
In addition, WKRN-TV reported on 27 February 2007 that the Gore family obtains their power from the Nashville Electric Service's "renewable energy initiative", The Green Power Switch program and that this program's "power sources are primarily wind, solar and methane gas [...] solar power is generated from photovoltaic panels that convert the sun's energy to electricity. Energy from methane gas is provided by the city of Memphis wastewater treatment facility, which produces a methane by-product that is co-fired with coal."
The Detroit Free Press also noted in a 27 February 2007 article that "Gore purchased 108 blocks of 'green power' for each of the past three months, according to a summary of the bills. That’s a total of $432 a month Gore paid extra for solar or other renewable energy sources.The green power Gore purchased is equivalent to recycling 2.48 million aluminum cans or 286,092 pounds of newspaper, according to comparison figures on NES’s Web site."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_controversies#_note-Critics_question_how_green_Gore_really_is