Al Gore Says Ralph Northam Can Atone For Blackface Scandal By Opposing Gas Pipeline

8:32 AM 02/20/2019 | Energy

Michael Bastasch | Energy EditorFormer Vice President Al Gore said Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam can fulfill his “racial reconciliation” pledge by opposing the Atlantic Coast pipeline, which he called a “racist rip-off.”

“This is an ideal opportunity for him to say, ‘I’ve seen the light,’” Gore said at an anti-pipeline town hall in a historically black part of Buckingham County, Virginia, as part of an “Environmental Justice Tour,” the AP reported.

Gore appeared on stage with his daughter Karenna Gore, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, environmental activists and residents of Union Hill, a historically black neighborhood, who oppose the Atlantic Coast pipeline.

Gore and climate activists see Northam’s recent blackface controversy as a way to turn him against the Atlantic Coast pipeline. (RELATED: Trump Will Officially End Negotiations With California On Fuel Economy Rollbacks)

Northam’s political future was thrown into doubt early in 2019 after his medical school yearbook photos surfaced, showing a picture of an individual in blackface and another in a KKK hood.

Former U.S. VP Gore at Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Oslo

Former U.S. Vice President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore speaks this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Forum, in Oslo, Norway December 11, 2018. NTB Scanpix/Heiko Junge via REUTERS.

Northam apologized for being in the photo, but, one day later, claimed he wasn’t in the photo amid calls for his resignation. He did, however, admit to wearing shoe polish for a dance contest in 1984. The embattled Democratic governor refused to resign, and wanted to focus on “racial reconciliation,” The Washington Post reported.

Barber said Northam needed to address “systemic racism” to truly atone for wearing blackface.

“If you want to be a great governor, if you want to help lead the nation, the first thing you oughta do is stop by Union Hill and tell this compressor, tell Dominion, ‘I was wrong, but I’m gonna do right, now,’” Barber said in a fiery speech Tuesday night.

The Atlantic Coast pipeline will bring natural gas 600 miles from West Virginia, through Virginia to North Carolina. The Richmond-based utility Dominion Energy will build and operate the pipeline.

Dominion plans on building a natural gas compressor station in the historically black Union Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. The Atlantic pipeline is one of many around the country environmentalists are fighting to block as part of their effort to keep fuel from getting to consumers who need it.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, accompanied by his wife Pamela Northam announces he will not resign during a news conference in Richmond

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, accompanied by his wife Pamela Northam announces he will not resign during a news conference in Richmond, Virginia, U.S. February 2, 2019. REUTERS/ Jay Paul.

Dominion proposed spending $5.1 million in the Union Hill community, which could include building a community center, improving emergency services and grants for businesses.

The Atlantic Coast pipeline will create thousands of jobs and lower energy bills, supporters say. However, the project has suffered delays and cost overruns while it’s caught up in litigation with environmental groups.

Gore called the pipeline a “vivid example of environmental racism,” and claimed compressor stations, like the one planned for Union Hill, can “cause lots of diseases” and emit lots of noise.

“We’ve heard about explosions and accidents,” Gore said, also claiming newer pipelines are even less safe — though, like his other claims, this is likely untrue.

Gore also called for Dominion to abandon the project and, instead, build more wind turbines and solar panels.

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ResourceGuy
February 21, 2019 2:09 pm

Thank you TN for not voting for him in the Presidential race that was so close.

max
February 21, 2019 2:10 pm

If it isn’t a religion, why is it selling indulgences?

sycomputing
Reply to  max
February 21, 2019 8:09 pm

Or better said, “If it isn’t a false religion, why is it selling indulgences?”

ResourceGuy
February 21, 2019 2:10 pm

Where oh where is Tipper?

john
Reply to  ResourceGuy
February 21, 2019 2:19 pm

Enjoying all the alimony Gore has to pay! That’s why he has to works so hard!.

February 21, 2019 2:11 pm

Northam should take note of the backlash against AOC for running Amazon out of NY just to appease the climate gods.

Carbon Bigfoot
February 21, 2019 2:21 pm

Anyone see this:
https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2018/dec-energy-infrastructure.pdf

Article in Solar Industry Website ( couldn’t link ) suggests Renewables are 21% of USA Energy Capacity ?????

Curious George
Reply to  Carbon Bigfoot
February 21, 2019 2:39 pm

Quite possible, but .. can you heat your home at night with a solar capacity?

icisil
Reply to  Carbon Bigfoot
February 21, 2019 2:44 pm

Only 11% is wind/solar, and that’s capacity. Actual produced is much less.

icisil
Reply to  icisil
February 21, 2019 2:51 pm

And that’s only electrical generation.

February 21, 2019 2:47 pm

The Raw Green Deal wants to do away with cow belches.
Perhaps AOC should focus on getting Algore to stop striking that “pull my finger” pose?
(He is rich now so he should be one of her targets.)

ScienceABC123
February 21, 2019 2:53 pm

Synopsis: Al Gore: “Anyone who has done any wrongdoing can atone for it by becoming a vocal advocate against ‘climate change’.”

R Shearer
Reply to  ScienceABC123
February 21, 2019 3:56 pm

Jussie Smollett is being demoted to climate actor.

Reply to  R Shearer
February 22, 2019 10:34 am

He is over-qualified for the job.

February 21, 2019 3:04 pm

I am only mildly surprised to see that Al Gore was invited to speak at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, in Oslo, Norway last December (caption under first photo in above article). Apparently, the Noble Prize bureaucracy has no embarrassment for giving its highest prize in 2007 to a poser who incorrectly—by some reliable accounts falsely by intention—claimed science supported his absurd claims and corresponding predictions regarding “Earth having a fever.”

Anyone can use a search engine to see just how many of Gore’s predictions, asserted to be based on solid science, have failed to materialize in the almost 12 years since he received his Nobel Peach (sic) Prize.

Alfred Nobel must be spinning in his grave at, oh, about 60 rpm.

Robert of Ottawa
February 21, 2019 3:14 pm

and global warming has nothing to do with politics

Keith
February 21, 2019 4:04 pm

Is Shaman Gore still going? Thought all that high living on the back of other people’s money would’ve given him a massive coronary by now.

AGW religion, fuelled by the O.P.M. of the masses.

Donald Kasper
Reply to  Keith
February 21, 2019 4:15 pm

This leads me to think that the AGW scare and opiod crisis are causally linked.

Donald Kasper
February 21, 2019 4:14 pm

All aboard the Full Out Mental Train. Tickets are free.

u.k.(us)
February 21, 2019 5:32 pm

The only thing I’ve learned from Al Gore, is how NOT to talk to a masseuse.
I would be interested in other Faux Pas to be avoided when slumming.
Would it be considered uncouth to seek advice ??

Tim Beatty
February 21, 2019 6:26 pm

So the road to the Green New Deal is being paved by men in blackface? that’s a catchy slogan.

Craig from Oz
February 21, 2019 6:28 pm

“We’ve heard about explosions and accidents,”

Have you? Then, considering how deeply Al and his friends feel about that industry, I am sure they have a big fat fact file ready to be sent out to anyone who even remotely questions his claim.

It must be there, right? Unless of course Big Media is covering up the dangers of gas pipelines. Pictures. Video. Charts. Reports.

Or does Racism now beat Safety Reports when it comes to engineering project concerns?

“Hmmm… Lets see, you propose to build your project out of broken bottles sourced from a bio-weapons research centre, but also have a 98.7% Diversity Rating and a Welcome to Country. Approved!”

Gilbert K. Arnold
February 21, 2019 6:48 pm

I find it ironic that “Al the bore” is speaking in a traditionally black neighborhood in Richmond, VA about a natural gas pipeline that will not come within 80 miles of the Union Hill district of Richmond, VA

Garland Lowe
February 21, 2019 7:18 pm

Union Hill is a poor area of Richmond. Virginia Commonwealth University is building apartments and other buildings 2 blocks away. (I’m working on one of them) This area is in desperate need of help. Al Gore is willing to let these people suffer because of his global warming BS. He then tries to make people believe” racist” are trying to locate a natural compressor station in a black neighborhood. He’s cut from the same cloth as Jussie Smollet.

Gilbert K. Arnold
Reply to  Garland Lowe
February 21, 2019 7:48 pm

Garland Lowe: People are confusing (conflating?) the Union Hill neighborhood of Richmond with the actual community of Union Hill (in Buckingham county) nearly 90 miles west of Richmond. If one were to look at a map of the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline you would see that it comes no where near Richmond.

Garland Lowe
Reply to  Gilbert K. Arnold
February 21, 2019 9:51 pm

Thanks Gilbert, couldn’t understand why a compressor station was being built in Richmond.
“Dominion plans on building a natural gas compressor station in the historically black Union Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia.”
I guess it’s a misprint.

Gilbert K. Arnold
Reply to  Garland Lowe
February 21, 2019 10:01 pm

Garland: Me thinks the article writer didn’t do his/her homework before sitting in front of the keyboard. Either that, or they were trying to incite more outrage.

Garland Lowe
Reply to  Gilbert K. Arnold
February 21, 2019 11:29 pm

I vote for the later.

Garland Lowe
Reply to  Gilbert K. Arnold
February 21, 2019 11:30 pm

I vote for the latter.

DCA
Reply to  Garland Lowe
February 22, 2019 11:47 am

I searched to see where the “neighborhood of Richmond” came from. The Daily Caller seems to be original the source. Nearly all the other sources referred to Buckingham County.

nw sage
February 21, 2019 7:46 pm

If Northam can atone for his blackface ‘sins’ by endorsing the pipeline cancellation then Al Gore can atone for his by pledging his full support for Donald Trump! Let the negotiations begin!!

Dennis Stayer
February 21, 2019 10:28 pm

So racism is ok so long as you promote the lie of cataclysmic humane induced climate change, what more evidence do you need of what the democratic party represents, it’s not social justice, its not the advancement of minorities, it is the advancement of global socialism where the elite rule, and the rest of us bow to the elite!

Craig W
February 22, 2019 2:25 am

Also known as … Let’s make a deal with the devil!

Sara
February 22, 2019 5:23 am

Algorebull again? He should really consider having surgery – get his mouth sewn shut.

Anyone so desperate for attention that he can’t even get facts straight is — well, in need of professional help with his problem. Attention-seeking and money-grubbing are cut from the same cloth. Isn’t there an iceberg about to calve that these people could live on for a while?

February 22, 2019 7:42 am

Has it dawned on anyone commenting here that you’ve all fallen for the bait?

Governor Northam made statements about “4th trimester” abortion that were about to destroy the political position of Planned Parenthood and the “Choice” arm of the Democrat party.

Quick; we need a distraction!! So some “anonymous person” gave an old yearbook photo to a newspaper and everyone is now chasing the squirrel!

Northam is looking like he will survive this because “racism” 30 years ago is not such a great deal after all.
The distraction worked; everyone forgets the first calls for him to step down were because of his abortion comments which would have done great damage to the Dems in Virginia in 2020.

Now it’s “What abortion comments?” Mission accomplished.

Reply to  George Daddis
February 22, 2019 12:02 pm

Clinton perfected this distraction technique. Everytime somebody caught him in a scandal, corruption, quasi-treason, etc., or simply an outright blunder, he had someone release a rumor about an old girl friend. They had a huge supply of those. The press dropped the original scandal and tooted on about the sex scandal, which dissolved into a they/she said-he said argument. And somehow, it turned out that all his girl friends had signed affidavits saying there was never no sex no sir.

He also made good use of the line “We’re not corrupt, we’re just stupid.” Naw, they were/are corrupt.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  secryn
February 22, 2019 12:18 pm

Yes, the so-called “bimbo eruptions”.

As I’ve told those with TDS: if you’ve defended Clinton for 20 years, worship the Kennedys as heroes and applauded along with Hollywood when it gave Roman Polanski a standing ovation with Harvey Weinstein in the audience…I’m not interested in your opinion on Trump’s alleged sexual issues.

Also see: James “if you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find” Carville…

February 22, 2019 11:29 am

I just had a horrible thought: what if Gore had been elected in 2000…..