The blogosphere is abuzz with commentary on Al Gore's recent pitch to congress to generate all US electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. I welcome the boldness of this suggestion. This contrasts with the recent G-8 summit goal of cutting emissions by half by 2050. Most observers are critical of this goal because 1) there are no nearer term goals and 2) this will likely be too-little-too-late if it ever materializes.

For Gore, the urgency of achieving this goal is because it doesn't just tackle greenhouse gas emissions, but also addresses two other major US problems: boosting the US economy (by becoming a leader in green economy) and avoiding current and future of oil-based wars:

I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.

You can read the original text of Gore's speech or an annotated version.