Gingrich, Gore Clash on Climate

Al Gore and Newt Gingrich both appeared on Capitol Hill today, arguing for and against Democratic legislation that would shape US policy on energy and the environment, MSNBC reports. Gore said the legislation, which would mandate a sweeping changeover to a green economy in the next 50 years, “has the moral significance equivalent to that of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.”

Gore also invoked the Marshall Plan as he advocated for the bill, which he said would fix the climate and economy, and address security concerns all at the same time. In prepared remarks, Gingrich strenuously disagreed, saying it would create an unwieldy bureaucracy. That would be “an invitation to corruption,” the former speaker said. “The idea that the Secretary of Energy is now going to be the czar of Jacuzzis is just absurd." (More Newt Gingrich stories.)