"Al Gore Expresses Disapproval Of Obama's Offshore Drilling Plan"

Huffington Post:

Al Gore and his group, the Alliance for Climate Protection, think President Obama's decision to pursue offshore oil drilling is a bad idea and they're letting him know, The Hill reported on Thursday.

In a recent tweet, Gore appeared to endorse a statement released by the Alliance's CEO Maggie L. Fox in which she criticized Obama's drilling plan, saying that it "continues our reliance on dirty fossil fuels."

"We cannot simply drill our way to energy security," Fox wrote. "Americans are demanding a clean energy future that goes beyond drilling and incentivizes the technologies that are critical to building a 21st-century clean energy economy. What we need now is presidential leadership that drives comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that caps harmful carbon pollution, puts America back to work, ends our reliance on foreign oil and keeps us safe."

The statement went largely unnoticed, but as The Hill's Russell Berman reports, Gore's embrace of Fox's comments represents the former vice president's first major break with the Obama administration.

On Wednesday Gore tweeted: "Another great post" by Fox that again counters Obama's "dirty fossil fuels" plan.

When asked about the statement, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider did not distance Gore from the condemnation.

"Former Vice President Gore did not release a statement, but the philanthropy he chairs did," Kreider told The Hill.