Representative Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, was asked a question about energy here at a bloggers conference. She glanced at her BlackBerry, noting that she had an e-mail message from a friend on that very subject.
With that, the voice of former US vice president Al Gore boomed over the public address system, leaving a sea of quizzical looks and then gasps, cheers and a standing ovation as he strode onto the stage.
It produced the first electric moment at the conference, the Netroots Nation, a growing group of progressive bloggers whose major interests — the war in Iraq, the environment and technology — mesh well with Gore’s current pursuits. Indeed, many in the crowd — who are supporting Senator Barack Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee — were overheard saying they wished he was running for president.
As waves of cheers washed over the cavernous convention center, Gore said to Pelosi: “We ought to take that act on the road.”
“We are on the road,” she replied.
“Well, I feel right at home here, I’ll tell you,” he said.
Gore told a questioner that he would not accept a role in the next administration. The best use of his talent and experience, he said, is “to focus on trying to enlarge the political space” within which politicians can address the climate crisis.
“I have seen firsthand how important it is to have a base of support out in the country for the truly bold changes that have to be made now,” he said, noting that is why he intends to devote his life to bringing about “a sea change in public opinion.”
He repeated the challenge he issued to the country to produce 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy and clean, carbon-free sources within 10 years. And he called on the bloggers to help achieve that goal, saying they were on the leading edge of reclaiming democracy for the grass roots.
When Gore addressed the group, he noted first that the polar ice cap, which is about the size of the continental US and has been in existence for 3 million years, had a 75 percent to 80 percent chance of melting in five years.
He also mentioned his energy challenge, which brought another standing ovation. He said he was trying to recruit “an army” of 10 million citizens to build political consensus across party lines for the energy challenge, and directed the audience to wecansolveit.org, the Web site of his group, the Alliance for Climate Protection.
“I need your help,” Gore said, a plea that bloggers heard repeatedly throughout their conference, which began on Thursday and ended yesterday, as speaker after speaker for various causes took note of their increasing influence within society.
Gore promised them that the alliance would not turn partisan or take up some other agenda and that he was in it “for the long haul.”
When asked whether Congress would accept Gore’s energy challenge, Pelosi said: “It is absolutely possible to do so.”
She added that without Gore, “there would be no Netroots Nation; we would simply not have the technology.”
As a reminder of the flap caused years ago — when he got tagged with having said he “invented” the Internet, although he had not used that word and had, in fact, helped legislatively to create it — he smiled at Pelosi’s comments and said, “I think I’ll refrain from saying it.”
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