Vice President Al Gore, speaking at the Earth Day fair in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, unveiled policy initiatives aimed at curbing emissions of greenhouse gases, including proposed tougher requirements for power plant emissions. Gore also reiterated his controversial claim that it is possible and necessary to phase out the internal combustion engine within the next two decades. Gore first made that contention in his book Earth in the Balance, which has been reissued for Earth Day 2000 with a strident new foreword by the veep. Grist’s Muckraker wonders why Gore bothered to reissue the book. For enviros, it’s a painful reminder of opportunities missed and promises unkept during the Clinton-Gore administration. For his enemies in the Republican Party, it’s a great opportunity to rip him as a loony polemicist.
