Al Gore is certainly not one to pull any punches, at least not in regard to environmental issues. Big Al address Constitution Hall in Washington, DC today and spoke about the United States' need to transition to renewable electricity and carbon-free energy within the next decade. Some of the highlights of speech include:

The problem

I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand
more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10
years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.

 The Bush administration

Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness.

It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now.

The proposed solution

We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we’re holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.

The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.

What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?

The challenge

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.

As the U.S. election nears, Americans - and the rest of the world for that matter - will start to have a clearer picture of the policies and priorities they can expect to see coming out of whichever administration sets up camp in the White House. The likelihood of Gore's challenge coming to fruition and his role in the process will of course depend on the government he's working with. One thing is for certain and that is, we can surely expect more speeches like this and a strong push from the former vice-president before Americans visit their polling stations.

You can read Gore's entire speech after the jump.

» CNN Politics