“I have a difficult task tonight,” Gore said. “I want to call you to action but I have to begin by telling you what you know, in all candor – the United States government in its entirety, largely because of the opposition in the United States Senate to taking action on clean energy and a solution to the climate crisis, has failed us.”

In July, Democratic leaders in the Senate called off any efforts to pass climate legislation because they said they considered the Gulf oil spill to be a larger more important crisis.

“In the last few months and weeks, the United States Senate has failed to meet the challenge of the climate crisis,” Gore said. “The Senate announced just last month that they would not take up comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation bringing to a temporary disappointing and frustrating halt a fight that we have been waging for the past year and a half and really longer – comprehensive legislation is now likely not to be debated when the Senate returns from the August recess.”