Flash Recap of the Clean Energy Summit

Call it the Al Gore Show if you'd like. And who better to throw down a little truth, inconvenient or otherwise? The first day of the Clean Energy Summit 2.0 was an action-packed soiree of good sense, powerful ideas and all-American mud-slinging, among the usual retinue of invitees, ranging from Bill Clinton and T. Boone Pickens to Summit host, Senator Harry Reid and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Things kicked off at the University of Nevada with some 300 rabble-rousers and counter-protesters picketing the event, both cheering and denouncing Obama, Senator Harry Reid and the pending cap-and-trade energy bill. Meanwhile, setting the exclusive tone of the two-day event, Senator Reid, in a well-placed touché, invited California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, leaving Nevada's own Governor Gibbons' name off the guest list.

The theme of this year's round table was about creating jobs during America's transformation into a carbon-neutral economy. But it didn't take long for things to slip into urgent warnings that immediate action is needed to reverse the global warming trend.

"This is madness," said Gore in an untypical show of emotion. "We owe it to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Who are we to make the decision to keep on being so wasteful and destructive in the teeth of warnings from every single prestigious science organization on this planet? Our kids will ask, 'Didn't you know? Didn't you care? Didn't you notice the thousand-year droughts and the 500-year floods? What were you all doing, watching American Idol?'"

"We have two options," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, punctuating Gore's message. "We can grow prosperous and do the right thing so our children and grandchildren will like us, or we can pretend things aren't happening and we're back in 1950."

During the event, Gore also leveled some surly criticism at NV Energy CEO, Michael Yackira, asking, "What prevents the installation of more combined heat and power units to capture that wasted energy?" Yackira muscled up the understatement, "There's a lot more that needs to be done."

The summit wraps up on Tuesday with a tour of energy efficient  projects in southern Nevada, including Las Vegas' all-new CityCenter, MGM Mirage's luxe urban resort boasting a fine package of sustainability efforts.

Photos: Top, Al Gore uses witchcraft to change the slides. Bottom: Bill Clinton and T. Boone Pickens prepare for some ceremonial back-slapping. Courtesy Center for American Progress Action Fund, via Flickr.