Former Vice President Al Gore appeared in Berkeley on Monday to lend his celebrity and reputation as a crusader against global warming to a measure on California's Nov. 7 ballot that would tax oil companies to raise $4 billion for green energy projects.``I'm here to change peoples' minds on the climate crisis and to support Prop 87,'' Gore called to a group of reporters after he emerged from the ``100 miles per gallon'' Toyota Prius that brought him to a noontime rally in a sun-drenched park behind Berkeley's City Hall.
no Prius has ever gotten 100 mpg.
His motorcade also included three motorcycles, two limousines and a Dodge Ram 1500 light duty truck.
Gore, flanked by signs proclaiming Yes on 87 and promoting the Web site of a Berkeley company that installs solar energy systems, spoke to hundreds of supporters who had passed between metal barriers and gathered in front of speakers pulsating rock and reggae music.
Organizers estimated the crowd at 3,000. Police at the scene had no estimate.
Like a candidate delivering a stump speech, Gore ranged over a wide political terrain in his 24-minute speech. He compared those who have denied the threat posed by greenhouse gas emissions and climate change to those who ignored warnings before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
Gore likened the global-warming crisis to having a sick child: No responsible parent would delay treatment once a diagnosis is rendered, he said.
Proposition 87 would tax oil companies for oil they take from California, raising about $4 billion for use in developing alternative energy sources with a goal of reducing the state's dependence on gas and diesel by 25 percent within 10 years.
It's backed by environmental, health and other groups who say it will reduce foreign-oil dependence while nurturing cleaner energy and mitigating global warming. California is the only oil-producing state without such a drilling tax, they note, but the measure's foes -- funded mostly by San Ramon-based Chevron and other oil companies -- say the state already puts property, sales and other taxes on oil.
No on 87 campaign spokesman Nick DeLuca attended Gore's speech and later Monday said it underscored the ``split between the big picture and the actual initiative.'' Oil companies, business groups and other opponents of the measure agree on reducing foreign-oil dependence and stopping global warming, he said, but the measure poses problems: a tax that would decrease domestic production and increase foreign-oil imports, and a new bureaucracy exempt from competitive bidding and some conflict-of-interest rules.
Oil companies, which face the loss of profits from hundreds of California oil wells, had ponied up $73 million through last Friday to attack Proposition 87 with an advertising barrage that argues that the tax would increase fuel prices.
Chevron, the state's largest oil producer, had kicked in $30 million. Supporters of Proposition 87 said Chevron wrote an additional $5 million check on Monday. The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Proposition 87's supporters have stayed in the fight, largely on the strength of an unprecedented $40 million contribution from a Hollywood producer and real estate heir Stephen Bing. Gore acknowledged Bing's presence at Monday's rally, but he did not speak
he's running in '08....I love it