News & Observer | newsobserver.com | 2008 NCAA Men's Bracket

Bad weather forced the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity to postpone plans to sail a hot-air balloon reading "Global Warming Alarmism: Lost Jobs, Higher Taxes, Less Freedom" over John Edwards' Orange County estate. 

Dallas Woodhouse, N.C.  director of the national grassroots group, said the stunt was designed to point out what he sees as Edwards' hypocrisy: calling for reduced energy consumption while living in a 28,000-square-foot house.

It's part of a nationwide "Hot Air Tour" sponsored by Americans for Prosperity that also has sent the same balloon over Al Gore's large Tennessee home.

A spokeswoman for the Edwardses released a statement from the couple calling the demonstration a "sad attempt to throw political mud" and noting that the house does get some of its energy from solar panels.

Woodhouse pointed to an Edwards quote from a Democratic presidential debate last year at Drexel University: "We're going to have to be willing to sacrifice. If we love this country enough, we're going to have to conserve, in our homes, in our workplaces, and alter our behavior to make America what it is capable of being."

“We are traveling the nation to highlight the ‘hot air’ that comes out of so many politicians’ mouths when it comes to global warming,” Woodhouse in a news release.

“Nobody better represents the ‘hot air’ in the global warming debate than John Edwards, who traveled the state proposing much higher taxes and regulations on average citizens while be built a massive energy-guzzling house in Orange County.”

Woodhouse and AFP are skeptical that human activity causes global warming. They view it as a scare tactic used to increase regulation and raise taxes that will have a negative impact on the economy.

Woodhouse said he hopes a secondary benefit of the balloon ride, if and when it happens, is to hearten people who are skeptical about the severity of global warming.

"You're not a kook because you don't believe in it and you're concerned about the high cost of energy and increased regulation," Woodhouse said.

The Edwardses want it to have the opposite effect.

"We are proud that our home is an Energy Star house, the best rating possible, and that their hot air balloon ride will give them a view of the solar panels that we already have in place," the statement read.

"In addition, we have been working with Carolina Solar Energy to design the additional solar panel (PV) system to complement what is already in place. We have made it a priority for our family to create a very fuel efficient home and hope that this sad attempt to throw political mud will draw even more attention to the issue of global warming and the need for all Americans to take steps to limit their energy usage.”