James Pethokoukis tallies the cost of Gore's call for 100% renewable energy by 2018:
By my math, using Pickens's numbers, converting the whole economy to renewable energy in a short period of time might cost $5 trillionand that is if you assume that government-led projects come in on budget. (Remember, the current U.S. gross domestic product is $12 trillion.) That would be like creating another Japan. Or fighting World War II all over again. The latter analogy is especially apt since the Gore Plan would effectively transform our free-market economy into a command-and-control war economy full of rationing and scarcity. Of course, there are many folks like Gore who view global warming as the moral equivalent of war. But Gore would extend the concept into the economic equivalent of war. Again, all this makes sense if you think we are doomed otherwise.
Sara Barz rounds up blogosphere reaction.